Rebirth
by Crionics
Summary: Six thousand years since the last Jedi roamed the galaxy, an escalating conflict between the Republic and the Chiss Ascendancy has the whole galaxy gripped in tension. But the discovery of an old Jedi Holocron by a Force Sensitive human may change everything.
1. The Hermit

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 1 – The Hermit**

Devin sat at the bar, his mouth dry and face dirty from his boring construction job. He hated the job, but put up with it because he hated it a bit less than anything else he could be doing to earn some credits. And anyway, it gave him an appreciation for a nice cold Corellian ale after a hard day's work. The satisfying _plonk_ of the tall, frosty glass landing on the bar mat at _The Coruscanti Arms_ brought a smile to his face, and he drank thirstily, gulping down half the glass in one hit.

"That'll be 4 creds, Dev." The barman said, and Devin placed a credchip in the rotund man's fat hand.

It was times like these that Devin often wondered whether it was worth having dreams at all, or whether this was all that life had to offer. He'd heard rumours of a long-forgotten race of people who, thousands of years ago, did amazing things to help the people of the galaxy, both on the warfields and in normal everyday life. Devin did what he could to assist anyone who he felt worthy, but he was one man, and Coruscant was a very big place. Never mind the rest of the galaxy. He finished his ale and pondered for a moment about the way the galaxy might have been in the times of those great people, whose name he had never found out.

He decided to have one more ale before heading home for the day, and tossed the barman – whose name he knew was Ternaugh – another credchip.

"Thanks Tern, after this I'm off for the day."

"C'mon buddy," Ternaugh pleaded half-heartedly in his thick, lower Coruscanti accent, "the kegs are still full and the day is still bright. Plus, you haven't met my young friend here." Ternaugh explained, pointing to a pretty girl dressed in what appeared to be not much more than a bikini, about five years older than himself who was sitting a few barstools away from him, chatting to a much older man. She turned around and looked at Devin briefly, before returning to her flirting with the older man, seemingly uninterested in Devin or Ternaugh.

"No thanks, Tern," Devin smiled, knowing full-well that the jolly, fat barman had no idea who the girl was, "I'm pretty tired, so I think I'll just relax at home tonight."

"Have it your way, Dev," Ternaugh laughed, "but you're missing out…"

Devin casually saluted Ternaugh as he turned and walked out the cantina door, then lazily walked down the street towards his apartment.

As he walked down a nearby alley, he thought to himself about that ancient and forgotten race. _I wonder what they called themselves._ Suddenly, a missile of some description –a bottle, he presumed – came flying straight at him. With casual ease, he waved his left hand as if to bat the missile away, but never touched it. The missile was sent flying into the alley wall and smashed into a thousand pieces, making a hell of a noise.

"Very impressive," came a voice close by, with a mild Sulonian accent, "not bad at all, kid."

"Where are you?" Devin demanded. "You got a problem?"

"No, but you do," the voice replied.

"My only problem, pal, is that some idiot threw a damn bottle at my face. Now come out here and face me like a man."  
"My, my," the voice said in a calm, mocking tone. "You're going to have to kerb that anger though. That's not going to help you at all."

Devin grunted and spat in the direction of the voice before continuing his journey home. He only got about 5 more paces before a hand grabbed his left ankle from behind a dumpster, tripping him. Devin pushed instinctively at the ground with his hands, forcing a wave of energy downwards and sending himself back upright again without so much as blinking.

"You're better than I thought." The voice came again, this time it belonged to what looked to be a typical, alcoholic hermit. The man stood up and brushed himself off. He was wearing a dirty, old brown robe with a large hood drawn over his brow-line so his eyes were barely visible. A long, white beard covered the lower half of his face, but betrayed a smug smirk.

"What's your problem, old man? I'm trying to get home, you're throwing stuff at me and tripping me over. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were looking to get your head kicked in," Devin said angrily.

"But you do know better, don't you," the hermit said, the smirk still showing from beneath his white beard.

"What's that supposed to mean?"  
"You think I didn't see what you did, Devin?" The hermit's smirk grew wider, into a broad, toothy smile.

"I never told you what my name was." Devin felt a little concerned now, but somehow, the hermit radiated comfort, like he wanted Devin to feel at ease. "Who are you, anyway?"

The hermit's grin faded quickly into a more sombre expression.  
"I should probably explain myself. Let's go back to your apartment and I'll tell you everything."  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Devin raised his hands and took a step backwards, "what makes you think you can just invite yourself to my apartment?"

"Because if you don't invite me, I'm going to come in anyway," the hermit explained, the toothy grin returning.

Devin sighed defeat, but somehow he felt like he could trust the guy. He didn't quite understand _why_ he felt that way. There was just something about this hermit.

"Come on then, let's go. It's not far." Devin motioned for the hermit to follow. "And bring your drink. You're not getting any of mine."

The hermit bent down and grabbed a full bottle of ale, then followed Devin down the alley.

* * *

"Have a seat," Devin went straight to the fridge and grabbed himself another ale. "You need a glass?"  
"Corellian ale always tastes better in a glass. Just make sure it's clean." The hermit replied.

"A _clean_ glass? You're pretty picky for a bum, you know that? And what makes you think I'd give you a dirty one anyway?"  
"I just like my ale Corellian and un-poisoned," the hermit replied.

"Fair enough, I suppose," Devin said as he returned with the glass and his ale. "So what's your name, anyway?"

"The name's Kyle. Pleased to finally meet you properly. Manners are so rare these days," Kyle the hermit said with a grin.

"You can say that again. The whole galaxy's like that now." Devin took a swig of ale. "So how come you know my name? You never told me."  
"I know a lot about you, Devin. I know you better than you know yourself, you might say."  
"I might _not _say," Devin said with a raised eyebrow. "I just met you. Care to explain yourself?"

"Sure thing," Kyle said, shifting himself on Devin's couch, into a comfier position. "You used the Force today."

"The Force?" Devin asked, raising the other eyebrow.

"Yep, you heard me." Kyle smiled at Devin, seemingly enjoying the confusion he was causing him. "See that ale you're holding?" and with that, the ale bottle floated out of Devin's hands and into Kyle's, the hermit then gulping down all of the contents.

"You can do that too?" Devin said, astonished. Too astonished to notice that his ale was now gone. "I thought I was the only one."

Kyle smiled once more. "There's a lot you don't know. Like the name of that long-forgotten race of people you keep daydreaming about."  
"How do you…" He was starting to pick up a pattern, here. He stopped speaking and just listened.

"Well, they weren't a race, for starters. It was more of a religious group than a race. People of all species could be a part of it." Kyle floated the empty ale bottle back over the Devin, then took a swig of his own ale from the glass Devin brought him. He continued.

"The Force is the power you used earlier, the one I've been using too. It's an energy; the essence of all life. The power behind the universe, if you will."

For the longest time, Devin had been able to use this 'power' of his to do extraordinary things. But he kept it quiet, as people found it strange and threatening. He'd long suspected that it was a kind of 'life force' that everybody had, but not everyone could use. Now it had a name: The Force.

"That's not too far from the truth, you know," Kyle said, seemingly reading Devin's thoughts. "There's no limit to the kind of strange and wonderful things you can do with the Force. For thousands of years – tens of thousands – people such as myself trained in the use of the Force, trying to uncover its secrets, testing our limits, and helping the people of the galaxy wherever we could. But just like anything in life, there are two sides to the coin."

Kyle's face became serious now.

"So that's why you warned me not to get angry earlier," Devin surmised. Kyle nodded his agreement as he gulped down some more ale.

"Using the Force with passion is what we used to call the 'Dark Side' of the Force. Using it to hurt people, to gain power over others."

"So the good Force users were using the 'Light Side' of the Force?" Devin asked.

"That's right, more or less. There was a lot of debate over the course of history as to what constituted 'light' and 'dark'. I was always of the theory that the Force was not inherently good or evil, it was how it was used that made the user himself light or dark. But other people have had other theories over the millennia. Who knows whether they were right or wrong about it. The Jedi are long gone now."  
"The Jedi?" Devin asked, but realised as he spoke that this was the name of that fantastic group of light side Force users.

"Now you're starting to get it." Kyle smiled toothily again, reading Devin's mind and letting the young man answer his own question. "But I can't stick around. I've probably been here too long already." Kyle got up out of the chair and made his way to the door.  
"Wait!" Devin yelled, "Can't you stay and, I dunno, teach me? I wanna learn as much as I can about this. I've had this ability my whole life, and now it's just starting to make some sense."

"Sorry, kid," Kyle turned to face Devin. "Like I said, I've probably been here too long already. If you really wanna learn more, there's a cave near the southern magnetic pole of a planet called Ilum. Look for a cube about four inches wide. You'll know what to do with it. Tell 'em Master Katarn sent you."

"Wait! That's all you have to say?" Devin shouted. "What's Ilum? I've never heard of it! How do I get there?!"

"Sorry kid…thanks for the ale, you have good taste…" and with that, Kyle the hermit faded into nothingness. Like he'd never even been there at all.

_What the hell just happened?_

Devin decided against his better judgment that this was exactly the type of sign he'd been waiting for his whole life. He didn't really care how suddenly it had happened or how crazy the whole thing seemed.

Devin decided the best thing he could do with his time right now was to head to the Coruscant Planetary Library. It was only a short speeder trip from his apartment, and took only a few minutes to get there. Plus he just _had_ to find out where and what this planet Ilum was. He parked his small black speeder in the library's undercover parking area and walked in.

He went straight to the nearest console and opened up the navigation information program. He searched for 'Ilum', but got no results. Frustrated, he searched in the library's main database for anything to do with Ilum at all, but still got no results. _Maybe I'm just going mad,_ he thought. _Maybe all this daydreaming is starting to get to my brain._

"Excuse me, young man," came the friendly voice of an old librarian lady from over his left shoulder, "but do you need some assistance?"

"Yes, actually," Devin replied. "I'm looking for the location of a planet called Ilum."

"Ilum…" the old lady drifted off into her thoughts for a moment, "never heard of it," she finished.

"Damn. I wonder if it even exists," Devin said disappointedly.

"Well, where have you tried searching?" the old lady asked politely.

"I checked the navigation program and the library's main database, but there weren't any results."

"Did you include the Unknown Regions in your nav search?" the old lady asked, and with that she changed the search parameters to include planets located within the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, where the Outer Rim would be if it stretched all the way to the north-western-most part of the galaxy.

"There's your planet Ilum," the old lady said with a satisfied smile, as Ilum appeared as a bluish-white planet on the console's monitor.

"Thanks, ma'am." Devin said as the old lady waddled off to her next job.

"Ilum," Devin started reading, "an ice planet on the fringes of known space, said to be the only known planet in the galaxy that still naturally produces Adegan crystals. Ilum has been abandoned for more than two thousand years, shortly after the Republic deemed it too unsafe for exploration or colonisation. Even the Republic Army have been banned from its surface."

_So how am I supposed to get there? Thanks for nothing, Kyle._

He was about to give up when he brought up the galaxy map and zoomed in on Ilum's location, and found that there was a long disused shipping route that led right to it. He traced the hyperspace route to the beginning, at Ord Mantell, and found that he could join it at Bilbringi. He smiled to himself, then checked the database once more to see if there was anything about that shipping lane, such as Republic monitoring of any sort. When he found no references to either Ilum nor the shipping lane, he decided to go to back to his apartment and pack. _I'll pack for Corellian winter, I should be fine,_ he thought. _But first I gotta erase all my searches. I don't want anyone finding out I'm going to a banned planet._

Back at his apartment, he packed some essentials and as much cold weather clothing as he could find, as well as some digging and climbing equipment, since he was going to look for a cave. He also packed his trusty overpowered blaster pistol. It was based on an archaic design, a DL-44 from centuries past. But thanks to new technology, an old design like that could house some powerful internals. And thanks to the antique look, no one suspected it actually even worked, which came in very handy sometimes. He quickly made a call to his boss at the construction site and said he'd had a family emergency, and he had to go back to Dantooine for a few weeks. _That should be enough time to get to Ilum and back, surely._ It didn't really matter that he had no family, on Dantooine or anywhere else. His boss didn't know that, and he probably wouldn't care even if he did. _Come to think of it, I don't care either. I hate my job._ He jumped back in his little speeder and made his way down to the Corellian Sector spaceport.

* * *

"Hey Dev, how's it goin'? I got that crank-driven charger fitted to your sublight drives now. Damn that's a fast ol' pile-o-crap. Gives you a swift ol' kick in the back, even with the compensator on full!"

"Thanks heaps, Creo," Devin replied. "I'm actually about to take her for a trip, so great timing."

"You're gonna have a blast gettin' there, that's for sure. I'd take 'er for a run through some asteroid field for some fun, but that's just me I s'pose," Creo laughed.

Devin liked Creo. He was an old Corellian freighter mechanic, about 60 years old, but had a passion for making things really fast, as all Corellian freighter mechanics did. But especially things that weren't meant to go fast, like Devin's starfighter relic. It, like his blaster pistol, was based on an ancient design, and wasn't even meant to work. It was given to him by an old friend when he was just 15 years old, and was actually a working model of an ancient fighter called an X-Wing. Complete with underpowered sublight drives and moving s-foils, but no cannons and no hyperdrive. When he met Creo three years ago he started modifying it bit by bit, until now it was basically a full-blown starfighter, faster and more powerful than the Republic's own fighters. Creo was especially proud of it. "You could take out an entire Republic squadron with this thing," he liked to say. Every credit that Devin earned that didn't pay for food or rent was spent on that fighter, and he had the race trophies to prove it. Devin was a mad speed freak and quite proud of it, even if the Republic interstellar traffic laws sometimes got in the way a bit.

Devin thanked Creo once more, then got in the X-Wing and took off. As soon as he moved the throttle, he felt that new modification kick in hard.

_Creo wasn't kidding, _he thought to himself as the X-Wing lurched forward powerfully. As soon as he exited Coruscant's stratosphere, he punched it into full throttle and set off towards Bilbringi.

* * *

Devin landed the X-Wing as carefully as he could in the raging snowstorm, being buffeted by the powerful winds. As he landed, the fighter skidded on the icy surface of a frozen lake and his trusty navigation droid Rusty - an R20 unit based on the archaic and famous R2 series – squealed a frightened tune in response.

"Relax, it's fine. It's just a lake," he assured the droid. "Now you stay here with the ship. Take off if you see any trouble and just act as if I'm on board. Send me a message on my datapad to let me know."

The little droid uttered an irritated response to his order.

"Yeah I know you know the drill. But it never hurts to make sure, does it?"

Rusty admitted an affirming 'woo', so Devin jumped out of the fighter, using his force powers to land gingerly on the ice.

"I don't know how long I'll be, so just hang tight buddy."

Devin set off towards the exact south pole of Ilum, using a topographic readout he'd obtained from the library to guide him. When he couldn't find anything that resembled a hill close to the exact magnetic south pole, he stopped to think. _I hope Kyle wasn't lying about this just to send me on a wild bantha chase._ Then it hit him: Kyle said he was a Jedi, and that they were long gone now. He didn't understand how they could be long gone if Kyle was in the room with him, but he also didn't understand how he faded completely into thin air either. _But if the Jedi really are long gone, maybe Kyle's information is very old. The poles may have shifted in that time._ He'd pre-loaded Rusty's memory with as much information on Ilum as he could find, so perhaps the R20 droid had something that could help out. He pulled out his comlink.

"Rusty, do you have any information on Ilum's magnetic shift over time?"

Devin checked his datapad, waiting for a response from the droid.

_OVER THE LAST 3000 YEARS THE MAGNETIC SOUTH POLE OF ILUM HAS MOVED 2 DEGREES NORTH AND 34 DEGREES, 48 MINUTES WEST._

"So where am I at the moment?" he asked the droid, now regretting not doing more research into this before leaving for the frozen wasteland that was Ilum.

_YOU ARE CURRENTLY AT 4 SECONDS EAST OF THE MAGNETIC SOUTH POLE. LOOK TO YOUR LEFT._

Devin did as the droid suggested, and couldn't see anything. Confused, he raised the comlink to tell Rusty off for playing another joke on him when the wind suddenly died down momentarily. As the blinding snow slowed its movement, a small cavern appeared a few hundred metres away.

"That was lucky! I hope it's the right cave."

_IT WAS NOT LUCK. I EDITED THE SHIP'S READOUT OF THE PLANET AS WE DESCENDED._

Devin shook his head, impressed with the droid and simultaneously upset with himself for such an obvious oversight. _It's too damn cold,_ he told himself.

As he entered the cave, the bone-chilling cold eased up massively. Without the wind and snow cutting through layers of cold weather clothing, he was quite warm now. The cave itself was staggeringly beautiful. All around, he could see beautifully coloured crystal growths, shining in brilliant shades of green, blue, purple and yellow. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks; ahead of him was what appeared to be a temple of some sort. _Kyle was telling the truth. There really is something here._

He made his way through a stone archway, beautifully carved with an intricate pattern all the way around. The archway was around twenty metres high and at least ten across, with huge statues the same height on either side. The statues depicted a pair of warriors holding a blade in both hands, in a guard position in front of them. They were extremely well preserved. Devin assumed that this place must have been lost for thousands of years, without any sentient contact the whole time. The temple gave him a strange feeling as he entered it – a kind of warm, happy, tranquil feeling. He suddenly felt very comfortable, like he'd been here before.

Ahead of him was another statue, significantly smaller than the others, and with its hands outstretched. As he approached it, Devin noticed the statue held two objects. One appeared to be a strange kind of sword hilt, the other was…

_The cube!_

He held the cube – which was carved with a stunning and ancient looking design, and felt warm to the touch - in his hands, and immediately he felt a surge of understanding overwhelm him. Without any prior knowledge of what this cube was or what to do with it, he closed his eyes and saw the cube in his mind's eye. Using his feelings alone, he willed the cube to grow warmer and brighter. Devin opened his eyes and discovered that the cube was exactly as he had pictured it in his mind. It glowed a soft, warm orange, and he could feel power emanating from it. He placed the cube back onto the statue's left hand and stood back. Suddenly, a hologram of a bearded man in robes appeared between it and him. He recognised it immediately.

"Welcome to Ilum," it said with a hoarse, friendly voice, "I see you found my holocron. I didn't think anyone would ever find it."

"Kyle?" Devin asked, totally confused, and yet feeling like he should understand more about this already.

"I see we've met already. I don't know how though, seeing as this holocron has been here for almost six thousand years. Care to explain?" Kyle's hologram asked. It appeared to have the same personality as the Kyle who disappeared in his apartment.

"How could this holocron have been here for six thousand years? You were in my apartment just the other day."

"Oh? I guess that Force Ghost stuff Luke taught me must have worked then."

"Force Ghost?"

The Kyle Hologram sighed, putting his hands on his hips and slumping his posture. "I'll start you off slow, kid. I'm not real. I'm a holographic interface recorded by Kyle Katarn for the purpose of being this holocron's gatekeeper. A holocron is an archive of Jedi knowledge, only accessible to people who can use the Force. This holocron was put here by Jedi Masters Kyle Katarn and Luke Skywalker near the end of their lives so that if the Jedi ever ceased to exist in the distant future, a Force-sensitive being of a generally light-sided persuasion could activate it easily and learn about the Jedi."

"You've been dead for how long now?" Devin asked, quite unable to believe that a dead man had been drinking his ale just the other day.

"Nearly six thousand years. If you saw me, I was a Force Ghost. I must have instructed you to come here in order to collect this holocron. Anyway, here's where it gets interesting: there's another one of these around. The Jedi decided to put two holocrons in secret locations. You've found one, but there's another one on a planet called Tython near the galactic core."

"Why didn't you just make one?"

"Because if this knowledge ever fell into the wrong hands, the results could be devastating to the entire universe. We decided to split the information into two halves: one containing knowledge of our combat techniques and weapons, the other containing information on our history and beliefs. The reason you were guided to this one first is because if you're Force-sensitive, you'll need to know how to defend yourself properly. Certain people will always fear the Jedi, and our history has been rocky at best. If you're looking for the other holocron, then you'll almost certainly run into trouble from dark side Force-users, bounty hunters and other types. Once you know how to protect yourself, you'll have no trouble finding the other holocron. But first, before I reveal anything else, I need you to pass a test."

"What kind of test?" Devin asked, not knowing quite what to expect.

"Don't worry, it's just a few questions to gauge whether you're suitable to find out anything more about the Jedi before allowing you to take off into the galaxy with possibly the most important antique in history," Kyle explained unreassuringly. "First of all, how old are you?"

"I'm twenty. What's that got to do with anything?"

"A lot, actually. Historically, Jedi were trained from a very young age so they could better absorb knowledge of the force without being too influenced by the corrupt ways of the rest of the galaxy. I don't believe it's the be all and end all of it though. I was about your age when I first learned about the Force, and Luke Skywalker, one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time, was only a little younger when he learned. But I'm asking the questions, okay?"

Devin muttered an affirmation and let Kyle continue.

"Alright, so you're not too old. What do you think of politicians?"

"I think they have their place, but I don't like them."

"Why's that?"

"Most use their position for their own benefit, ignoring desperate issues if they stand to lose something, making life difficult for anyone who isn't rich, that sort of thing. Corruption and greed are just two words that both mean 'government' to me."

"Good answer," Kyle nodded. "Now, do you like fighting?"

"I like putting bad people in their place, but I never start a fight. I only finish them."

"So you like defending people, but you didn't answer my question."

Devin thought for a moment about how best to answer. He now knew the Jedi weren't fond of violence, but he didn't want to answer dishonestly. "I like fighting if it's going to stop someone from doing something stupid. But if there's nothing to be gained, then no, I don't like fighting."

"We'll have to work on that," Kyle said, stroking his beard. "Okay, last one. How would you go about making the galaxy a better place?"

Devin folded his arms, thinking long and hard about this last question. Anything he said could give off implications of aggression or ego, so he had to be careful. He desperately wanted to learn more about these Jedi and the Force, so he didn't want to answer in a way that displeased the gatekeeper. "At the moment there's a big stand-off between the Republic and the Chiss Ascendancy. That's the biggest problem with the galaxy at the moment, so I'd try and assist the people of the Republic in changing their opinion of the Chiss and being more understanding of them, and if I could I'd try and reel in the Republic a bit on their stance against them. The whole galaxy is on the verge of killing each other at the moment."

"Sounds a bit like every other conflict in the history of this place," Kyle shook his head. "Well, that was a superb answer. You'll make a great Jedi someday, and to ensure you do, I'm gonna give you access to all the information this holocron has to offer. Use it well. First thing's first though, you're gonna need to grab that hilt just there. Never let it out of your sight. And before you go, take as many of these crystals you see around you as you can carry. You'll need every last one of them, I promise you. I'll tell you more later. But right now you need to get going, so take the crystals, the hilt and this holocron and fly back home. And may the Force be with you, Devin Rokanh."

With that, the holographic image of Kyle Katarn faded and the holocron stopped glowing, returning to its previous state. Kyle was gone once more, vanished into thin air, back to the dead. Devin took the hilt and held it in his right hand, noticing immediately that it was weighty without being too heavy, very sturdy and very beautiful. It was a tubular silver and black design, metal with rubber hand grips in strips running up the length of it, ending in a slanted opening on one end with a thick pommel cap on the other. On one side there was a single black button recessed into the metalwork. He pushed the button, but nothing happened. _Must be out of power if it's been here this long,_ he thought to himself, then put the hilt away into a pocket in his jacket.

After putting the cube into a pocket in his backpack, he pulled out a small vibroknife from his jacket and got to work cutting some crystals free of their formations. _As many as I can carry,_ he reminded himself. He cut about twenty-five of them, an equal amount of different colours: five blue, five green, five yellow, five purple and five white, all ranging in hue from darker to lighter. As he cut the crystals from their base on the formations, he couldn't help but wonder what they were for. _Maybe they're supposed to help a Jedi focus the force or something…I better just cut them and get out of here. I can ask Kyle about them later._

When he got back to the X-Wing, he found it encrusted in a thick layer of snow, and Rusty making quick, erratic beeping sounds and seemingly vibrating in the droid-slot.

"Okay, okay, we're leaving. I know it's cold, but we'll be on our way as soon as I heat up the systems a little. Just have some patience, this planet's no more fun for me than it is for you, you know."

Rusty beeped a short, stuttered reply, which Devin knew was a blunt retort.

"Hey, if you freeze, you shut down temporarily until you can be heated up and turned back on. If I freeze, I die here on this ice-ball never to be seen again. Now stop complaining and let's get moving."

Devin opened the canopy and leaped up, climbing in and flopping down into the pilot's seat. Unlike other X-wing fighters of the distant past, Devin's version had a rear-gunner's position as well as the pilot's. Historical records had initially mixed up the cockpit layout of the first X-Wing fighters with that of the Y-Wing, making Devin's working model horribly inaccurate. But he didn't mind, as it meant he could take another person with him on a flight if he chose to. _And it was cheaper._ Right now he was glad for that extra seat, as it was now occupied by the many crystals he had gathered in the cave.

He activated the engines, allowing them to heat up for a few moments, giving the snubfighter time to warm its other systems as well – including heating. Devin loaded the astrogation and asked Rusty to plot a course back to Coruscant via Bilbringi in order to avoid being noticed by any Republic military craft coming from a banned planet. The flight would take three days, so he settled in and let Rusty do the work. The warmth of the cockpit tired him, and he soon felt his eyelids become heavy, eventually shutting completely.


	2. The Girl

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 2 – The Girl**

After setting the X-Wing down in the hangar, Devin headed straight back to his apartment to drop off his precious new supplies. His backpack was very heavy, laden with the weight of all the crystals, but the trip to the apartment wasn't far. After walking a couple of blocks from the hangar, he heard what sounded like a crowd. As he came closer, it started to sound more like an angry mob. Before he even saw the protest, he knew it was going to be about the Chiss conflict. He approached the mob from behind and listened in.

"_The Chiss cannot be allowed to showcase their strength along our borders! They must be stopped at all costs, before we enter another decades-long war that will bankrupt and devastate our glorious Republic!"_

It was the senator from Corellia, Senator Barbarus, and unlike the crowd he was addressing, he seemed strangely composed. _Something's wrong,_ Devin thought to himself. _This doesn't feel right_.

The senator kept up his impassioned speech, all the while giving off a strong sense of purpose and belief. _But normal people can't do that. That's the Force, he's using. What the hell is going on here…_

Suddenly, the senator stopped speaking momentarily and glanced over towards the back of the crowd – right at Devin.

_Shit! He must know that I can sense him using the Force…so other people can detect Force use as well, huh. Good to know…_

"It's not right, is it," came a small, squeaky Coruscanti accent to his left. He looked down and saw a very attractive red-headed girl about five feet, four inches tall, dressed in tight black pants and a strappy black top, looking up at him with big, blue-grey eyes.

"What's that?" Devin answered after he'd realised he was gawking at her stupidly. The girl smiled.

"The protest. It's not right."

"Oh!" Devin blushed. "No, there's something odd about the whole thing. Senator Barbarus is too confident."

"Yeah, he feels all wrong. Like he knows something that we don't," the girl responded.  
Devin looked at her quizzically, then felt a small pulse deep in his chest. She smiled at him again, then leant close to his ear.

"I know you can tell what's going on. And I know your secret," she whispered.

Devin lowered an eyebrow and looked at her quizzically again, not sure exactly what to say.

"Is there somewhere more private we can talk?" she whispered again.

Devin thought for a moment, then remembered his precious cargo. "Come with me, we'll go back to my place."

The girl stepped into Devin's apartment and plonked herself down on the sofa. "I'm Kayla, by the way. Kayla Talus."

"I'm Devin Rokanh. Pleased to meet you, Kayla."

"The pleasure's all mine," she smiled back sweetly.

"So tell me," he started, putting his backpack down and fetching two ales, "how did you know?"

Kayla crossed her legs, "Well, I saw you one day coming back from work, I guess. You dropped your datapad, then picked it back up again without even touching it. I was going to say something to you, but I thought you might get freaked out. I've been trying to track you down, but I didn't know your name or where you work. Then I saw you at the protest."

"So you can do that stuff too?"

Kayla used the Force to take one of the ales Devin was holding and float it over to herself, removing the bottle cap in mid-flight. She took a sip, then smiled back at Devin and giggled.

Devin grinned widely. In all his twenty years, he'd never met anyone who could use the same abilities as he had. Now, suddenly, in his own apartment, there was a beautiful young girl who had the same abilities. It was like a dream.

"I have to show you something, Kayla. You're gonna love it."

Devin opened his backpack and rummaged around for the holocron. Kayla leaned forward on the sofa, trying to see what he was looking for.

"That's gorgeous!" Kayla sighed, eyes wide open and unblinking. "Can I have a look?"

Devin passed the holocron to her, and she held it in her small hands very gingerly, as if it were a terraforming device and they were the last two humans alive on a dead world. She closed her eyes then, and the holocron grew brighter and brighter until the hologram of the gatekeeper appeared once more.

"A new face! Not bad, Devin. You work quickly," Kyle said, nodding his head. "So, I'm the gatekeeper of this Jedi Holocron. You can call me Kyle. What do I call you? Kayla? Kay? La? Tiny?"

"…how did you know my name is Kayla?" she asked, "I never told you."

"Secrets of the great and powerful Jedi, no time to explain it all," Kyle answered with a dismissive wave of the hand. "The important thing is, how much do you know already?"

"Well, I know I don't trust the Republic Senate, and I know I can do and feel things that other people can't, if that's what you mean."  
"Show me," Kyle said.

"Okay," Kayla answered hesitantly. "I'm still not sure what's going on here though,"

She looked around the apartment and saw Devin's backpack. She reached out with the Force and took one of the purple crystals out. The gatekeeper hologram watched on, unspeaking. Kayla floated the crystal over to herself and held it in her left hand, then turned to the gatekeeper and smiled sweetly.

"Very good," Kyle responded. "You have excellent control. Now I have some questions for you."  
"Questions?" Kayla answered, raising her right eyebrow slightly.

"Don't worry, they aren't tricky. Consider it an entrance exam."

Kayla nodded an affirmative as Devin watched on, very interested in hearing her responses.

"First off, how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"Nice and young. What do you think of politicians?"

"Some are okay, but I don't trust any of them."

"Good answer. Do you like fighting?"

"I like what I'd call 'aggressive defence', but-"

"-That's not what I asked you. I asked if you like fighting."

Kayla thought for a moment, then answered confidently. "Yes."

"At least you didn't try and justify it like Devin, here. It's not a good thing to enjoy fighting, but at least you're doing it for the right reasons. Now, final question. How would you go about making the galaxy a better place?"

"Right now? With the Chiss thing?"

"I'm a hologram. I don't know about this Chiss thing. But if that's what's happening right now in the galaxy, then yes. The Chiss thing. Are they really that bad? The Chiss were always a pretty rigid bunch of people, but they were never overly aggressive."

"That's the problem. Nobody's telling the people exactly what's happening. There's more to this than just a border dispute, but the people will be sent off to die without understanding that. If it was up to me, I'd investigate the real cause of this."

Kyle's hologram smiled for a while, nodding his head in approval. "Spoken like a true Jedi. I think you've got what it takes, kid. Now let me answer some of your questions for a while. We have a lot to talk about, us three."

Kayla and Devin sat for hours, taking in everything Kyle had to say to them about the Jedi Order and their previous role in the galaxy, as well as the many enemies they had such as bounty hunters, Dark Jedi, and the Sith. He explained the differences in the light and dark sides of the Force, and some of the many ways in which the line can be crossed and abused.

"There have been many different approaches to teaching Jedi over the years; several different schools of thought. In the past, the Jedi had often thought of the Force in strict terms of light and dark. Even love was considered a bad thing, as the loss of that love would induce powerful dark side emotions that can ruin a Jedi."  
"You don't agree with that, do you?" Kayla asked him, starting to understand the seriousness of the world being shown to them.

"Kyle Katarn didn't believe in that philosophy, and neither did Luke Skywalker. Luke was actually married to a wonderful woman named Mara Jade, and they were two of the most powerful Jedi ever to have lived, and they were head of the Jedi Council for years. But the other holocron has more about this stuff. This one is more about the combat side of things, hence why I'm on it. The other has a lovely young Jedi who will tell you all about the history of the Jedi and the Republic, and more about using and understanding the Force. For now, you two need to learn about protecting yourselves."

Kayla turned to Devin and grinned, practically exploding with excitement. "So it's like vibrosword fencing then, is it?" she asked Kyle. "I've done a bit of that before."

"It's a little like that, yes. But there's far more to it than just sword fighting. There are seven official lightsaber forms that the Jedi and the Sith use for battle. For the most part, this will determine more or less which Jedi class you'll fit into, but it's not strictly the case every time.

"There were once four classes of Jedi," Kyle continued, "although as time went on, it was a system that was seldom used. Sentinels, Guardians, Sages and Shadows, were their names. Typically, Sentinels and Guardians were more concerned with lightsaber combat, and Shadows and Sages were more interested in using the Force for combat. You're starting to put yourselves in categories already, aren't you."

Kayla grinned at Devin again. They had both indeed already chosen which paths they wanted.

"Well let me explain a little more, first. Jedi Guardians were the protectors. They typically had a single lightsaber, and used brute force to overwhelm opponents. They were the toughest of the tough. The Sentinels, they usually had two lightsabers, but not always. Their strength was in the speed of their attacks, and their agility. Most were outstanding swordsmen and women.

"The Sages, they were heavy Force users, and did very little in the way of lightsaber combat. The Emperor was a Sage once upon a time. Absolutely devastatingly powerful-"

"Emperor who?" Kayla interrupted. "I've never heard of an emperor."

"Oh, right…I forgot about that," Kyle admitted. "Well, never mind. The other holocron with tell you all about him. Anyway, the last of them were the Shadows, who were brilliant stealthers. They were more into lightsaber combat than the Sages were, but they were also heavy Force users."

"So, you want us to choose a class, then? But I thought you said that the Jedi stopped doing that?" Devin asked.

"They did, but Masters Katarn and Skywalker obviously thought it was worth doing again at some point or they wouldn't have programmed it in this holocron," the gatekeeper Kyle explained. "Anyway, don't choose straight away. For now, I need to teach you two the basics of the lightsaber forms, or you'll never get anywhere. Let's get to work."

* * *

Kayla came to visit Devin every night for three months, learning the lightsaber forms from the gatekeeper. The two had formed a close friendship, and found themselves telling each other things they hadn't spoken about with anyone. How both their families were killed in the same border skirmish ten years ago in the Corel system, and how they'd both been refugee orphans sent to Coruscant to live with other Corellian refugees, and all the troubles, friendships and accomplishments they'd had since then. They had a lot in common, from musical taste to political and social views. Even the gatekeeper had to admit that the friendship Kayla and Devin had forged was definitely helping them progress through their Jedi training. They had effectively mastered all seven lightsaber forms to some degree, and Kyle had even taught them how to build their own lightsabers, and how to turn down the power supply in them for sparring matches. They were by no means Masters, but they were more than capable Jedi students. They gathered again at Devin's apartment that night and relaxed by the holocron this time, sipping ales and listening to some more of the gatekeeper's tales. After a long story about how Kyle Katarn gave up the Force, but was forced to reacquaint himself with it again, the gatekeeper stopped talking suddenly.

"What's wrong, Kyle?" Kayla asked him, as the gatekeeper was never short of things to say.

"I think you two are ready. In the past, we would have done this over years, after which you would have been placed under the watch of a full Jedi Knight for more years. Then you'd undertake the Jedi trials, and if you pass, then you would be Knighted. If you excel, after more years you might have been given the title Jedi Master. But since there is no Jedi Council anymore, and indeed no actual Jedi either, I guess I'm the only authority for this in the whole galaxy."

Kayla and Devin grinned eagerly at each other, waiting for the gatekeeper to continue.

"You two are now both Jedi Padawans, and you will train each other in your journeys."

Kayla and Devin both sat with their jaws dropped. It was hardly what they were expecting to hear. "Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade Skywalker once trained using this exact same method. Trust me, it works. The other holocron's gatekeeper will assist me in the decision as to whether you are to become Knights, but for now, I've taught you all I can about the combat side of things. You need to go and find the other holocron on Tython. The gatekeeper will teach you the ways of the Jedi, the history of our order and the history of the Republic. And one more thing." The gatekeeper's expression changed to a warm one, Kyle's weathered and bearded face tightening into a smile. "You're the first new Jedi in almost three thousand years. I may only be a gatekeeper, but I know that Masters Katarn and Skywalker would be extremely proud of how far you've come. You can call on me any time, and I'll help you if I can. Go out there now and bring the Jedi back to the galaxy. May the Force be with you."

* * *

"So, Tython, huh. Never heard of it before I met you," Kayla stated.

"Neither," Devin mumbled. "If the info we have is correct, there will be a lot of dark side energy and probably some angry beasts to contend with."

"Hopefully no settlers…if they've been there for any length of time, then they might have had some issues with the dark side energies."

"Let's hope not…"

The two made their way across the hangar floor to Devin's X-Wing, where they met Creo, who was packing up some equipment.

"Heya, Dev," Creo greeted, looking a little flustered. "Say, who's your pretty young friend here?"  
"Creo, this is Kayla. She's a friend of mine," he turned to Kayla, then. "Creo's a good friend. He's helped me through some of the worst times over the last few years. I don't know what I'd do without him."

"Oh, stop talkin' trash, kid," Creo laughed. "I just do what I always do, nothin' more."

"Well, I'm very pleased to meet you, Creo," Kayla said, stepping up to Creo and giving him a peck on the cheek. "Any friend of Dev's is a friend of mine."

"Good to hear," Creo said with a smile, but then his face turned back to his previous flustered look. "Listen, Dev, where are you guys headed, man?"

"We're actually headed into the Core, to a planet called Tython. Why, what's wrong?" Devin asked.

"I knew you were gonna say that," Creo's expression dropped and he looked about seventy. "There's been some Chiss activity 'round the southern edge of the Core, so I hear. Some of the freighter pilots've mentioned seein' some Chiss frigates n' armoured transports patrollin' where there's no Republic presence. So I've changed the cannons on your X-Wing, just in case. Now they fire at twice the rate. Rate and fire order fully adjustable o'course. They also have an Ion Cannon function now, so you can disable a ship without killin' it. You don't want no dead Chiss to your name."

"Thanks, man. I really owe you one for that. Thanks for the heads up," Devin said as he shook Creo's hand.

"Don't worry 'bout the thanks. I'll be happy enough if you get back home safe n' sound with your friend here intact."

With that, the two climbed in the X-Wing and set off for Tython. Rusty piloted the ship all the way to their hyperspace dropout point on the edge of the galactic core, so Devin and Kayla settled in for some rest while they waited.

They awoke to the sound of Rusty beeping and whistling away frantically, with dozens of messages plastered all over the X-Wing's main monitor.

_WAKE UP. THERE ARE CHISS CONTACTS PATROLLING THIS AREA. WE NEED TO ESCAPE IMMEDIATELY TO AVOID POSSIBLE CONFLICT._

"Whoa, what's going on?" Kayla asked, rubbing her eyes.

"We got two Chiss frigates and a fighter wing patrolling, and an armoured transport heading for Tython," Devin answered as he read the contacts as they came up on the monitor.

"Can we approach from the other side of the planet?" Kayla asked.

"No, they have their frigates on opposite sides of the planet. Rusty, the rough coordinates Kyle gave us, are they on this side of the planet?"

_THEY ARE 100KM EAST OF THE ARMOURED TRANSPORT'S CURRENT TRAJECTORY._

"That's too close. They'll see us. Actually, have they seen us yet, Rusty?" Kayla asked.

_THE CHISS HAVE NOT DETECTED OUR SHIP YET. WE ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF THEIR SCANNING RANGE._

"So we can still go the long way," Devin thought aloud. "Rusty, can you plot us a course to those coordinates on Tython without us being detected by the Chiss?"

_ONE MOMENT…_

After almost a solid thirty seconds, the droid showed a trajectory map on the monitor. It led around the night side of the planet, opposite to where the Chiss were patrolling, before sharply angling back towards the planet. It then curved violently flat, along the planet's surface for several thousand kilometres to the coordinates.

_THIS WILL ELIMINATE POSSIBLE DETECTION. IT WILL ALSO CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE INERTIAL COMPENSATOR AND SUBLIGHT DRIVE SYSTEMS._

"So it'll break the ship then?" Kayla asked rhetorically.

_YES._

"Is there a way to avoid detection _without_ breaking the ship as well as us?" Devin asked, slightly irritated by the droid's overly logical answers.

_NO. THIS IS THE ONLY SAFE TRAJECTORY FOR UNDETECTED HUMAN SURVIVAL._

"What's the projected outcome?" Devin asked the droid, a little nervous at seeing the actual calculated figures.

_SHIP SURVIVABILITY, 10%. HUMAN SURVIVABILITY, 30%._

"Devin, I don't want to be stranded on a planet with Chiss all over it," Kayla advised, squeezing his shoulder slightly from her rear gunner's chair.

"Neither do I. That's why I'm going to call Creo."

"But what can he possibly do?"

Devin smiled. "Creo's an old Corellian freighter pilot from before the Corel skirmish. The best of the best. Nobody knows the Core and Inner Rim like Creo does. And I'll bet he did more to this ship than just give it bigger guns, especially if he knew we were coming here with the possibility of a Chiss encounter."

Devin dialled in Creo's comm frequency, and got a response immediately.

"_You're okay! That's great. Did ya make it to Tython?"_ Creo asked, sounding even more flustered than he was before.

"Yeah we made it, but like you said, there are Chiss here. Two frigates on opposite sides of the planet, at least one squadron of fighters, and at least one armoured transport which is heading to the exact same area of Tython that we are."

"_Show me your droid's suggested trajectory."_

Devin pressed some buttons on the X-Wing's console, and waited a few moments for Creo to respond.

"_That's a weak trajectory, for people with no Corellian blood. This is the one you want to take. Get your droid to analyse that."_

Suddenly, Rusty started shrieking and wailing, and a message appeared on the screen with Creo's trajectory behind it.

_SHIP SURVIVABILITY, 1%. HUMAN SURVIVABILITY, 3%._

The trajectory was the same as Rusty's in terms of leading them around the night side of the planet, but it cut less sharply into Tython's atmosphere and curved dangerously as it descended, keeping extremely low to the planet's surface for a very long distance.

"_See the droid's trajectory risks detection on at least five occasions. Mine doesn't risk it at all."_

"But it says we'll almost definitely be killed, Creo," Devin stated dryly.

"_Not in that ship, kid. Your new charger'll take care of the engines, just make sure you dial down the inertial compensator to ninety-seven percent, but no higher than that. You'll still be fishing your lungs out of your spine afterwards, but the ship'll withstand it. Any higher than ninety-seven n' you'll blow it up, n' take yourselves with it. It's gonna hurt, kid, but you'll live to tell the tale. Good luck, I'll see you when you get back."_

"Devin," Kayla said, squeezing his shoulder again, "I don't want to be splattered on a planet with Chiss all over it, but…"

"But?" Devin asked with an eyebrow raised.

"But I think we should do what Creo says."

"But we'll be killed, Kayla. We can't help the galaxy if we're dead. Maybe we should wait until the Chiss have gone."

"But don't you see?" Kayla asked, turning around in her rear-facing chair so she could see Devin. "The Chiss must be looking for the holocron too. It can't be a coincidence that they're in the exact spot we need to be on a planet no one's thought about in centuries. And you know as well as I do that the Chiss have always been very rigidly militaristic people. They're challenging the Republic, and they're looking for an upper hand. What better upper hand is there than the Force?"

Devin thought for a moment, and realised she was very, very correct. He stopped thinking and closed his eyes, focusing on detecting any subtle waves of dark side Force energy there may have been. Just as he started sensing the dark side on the planet's surface, he felt a small pulse deep in his chest, just like when he had first met Kayla. _She must have already thought of that._

"I _have_ already thought of that," Kayla said with a shaky voice, seemingly reading his thoughts. "Whoever wants that holocron is a very bad person, and the Chiss are helping them get to it. We have a responsibility as Jedi to stop them. Remember what Kyle told us?"

"'_The Sith will do anything to get their hands on the lost Jedi knowledge. Even if you die, you must protect it'_. I know…I heard him say it."

"Then why are you so scared?" Kayla put her arms around Devin's neck and gave him an awkward hug.

"How come you keep reading my thoughts and emotions like that?" Devin asked, finally frustrated enough by it to say something.

"That's not important right now. What's important is that we need to get that holocron before _they_ do. Just don't crack under pressure…I need you, Dev. I can't do this by myself."

Devin thought about it, and why he couldn't bring himself to land the fighter. Kayla tightened her hug a little, and he felt another pulse in his chest, but a nice warm one. He knew it was her doing, and it seemed to radiate warmth throughout his whole body, like a wave of comfort washing over him. He knew she was right; she needed his help, and they couldn't afford to let the holocron fall into the wrong hands. But it was such a _risky_ thing to do. They could be killed on the way down, they could hit some low-lying objects while skimming the planet's surface, they could be detected by the Chiss and captured, risking torture and prosecution and possibly even the start of a galaxy-wide war. But worst of all, they could meet a Sith on the planet's surface. Kayla could be killed, and then Devin would be all on his own. He'd turn to the dark side, and-

"Devin, none of that is going to happen," Kayla said softly. "We have to help each other, remember? We're going to get through this, we're _going_ to take the holocron back to Coruscant and we're _going_ to start a new Jedi Order. You and me together."

Kayla gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and waited for his response. After a few moments, he snapped back into action again.

"Let's do it, then," he said, plotting the new course in and activating the quad lasers. "Strap in, this is really gonna hurt."

Devin pointed the X-Wing at the night side of the planet and set it in forward motion at quarter-throttle to avoid expelling too much ion energy from the engines. It took around ten of the most tense minutes of their lives to get to the far side of the planet, before Devin killed the throttle and aimed the fighter straight at Tython's surface.

"You ready?" he asked Kayla, who took several deep breaths before responding.

"Ready…I think."

Devin eased the fighter towards Tython, not wanting to give away their position with ion trails from high throttle flying. There was a loud _thump_ when the X-Wing hit the atmosphere, and then suddenly they were accelerating much too fast. The fighter lurched and buckled, but Devin managed to stay roughly on course, fighting ferociously with the controls.

_C'mon, ship, hold together just a little longer…_

Suddenly some warning lights appeared on the X-Wing's monitors, and Kayla read them out.

"We've got overheating in all primary systems, hyperdrive is very close to toast."

"Hold on, ship. Not far now…"

"Rusty, turn forward shields on maximum!"

_THIS WILL SLOW YOUR DESCENT TOO MUCH. YOU WILL LOSE CONTROL OF THE SHIP AND SPIRAL INTO A CRASH._

"No we won't, Rusty. Just do it!" Kayla yelled.

The droid did as it was told, and then the ship buckled violently, the nose rising far too quickly.

"Devin, we're heading straight into their scanning range! That armoured transport is still descending! We're not low enough yet!"

"I've got this, don't worry, we're Corellian, remember?"

Devin managed to pull the X-Wing's nose back down, and the shields slowly depleted from 95% to 80%, then to 60%, as the fighter approached the planet's surface at tremendous speed.

_HULL PRESSURE INCREASING RAPIDLY. CHANCE OF SURVIVAL 1.5%._

Kayla shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "This is going to hurt, isn't it…"


	3. The Sith

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 3 – The Sith**

The X-Wing came to a halt on Tython's surface some five kilometres from the coordinates given to them by the gatekeeper. Although it was steaming hot and Rusty was a bit worse for wear, all in all it had turned out quite well. Creo was certainly correct in saying that the ship could handle it. Even Devin had said that it should only need to cool down for a while and it'll be good to go. Kayla was certainly relieved that Creo was correct.

"So we haven't been detected by the Chiss, and we haven't been violently killed as far as I can tell, so we must be doing alright so far," she commented dryly.

"Well, I'm a bit sore, but I'll live. According to those coordinates, it should only take about an hour and a half to get to the holocron, if we're fast."  
"I vote for fast. I'd very much like to be in and out of here with the holocron in hand before the Chiss realise anything's amiss."

"Same here. Let's get moving then."

Devin pulled his datapad out of a pocket and entered the coordinates onto a topographic map.

"This way," he pointed west, and led the way through the Tythonian forest.

For the most part, the journey was fairly uneventful. There was barely any wildlife at all, even avian, and it was extremely quiet. It was made creepier by a feeling of impending ambush.

"Where are all the animals? I thought there'd be some fauna around on a planet like this," Devin noted. "And do you feel like something's watching you?"

"I feel it," Kayla responded quietly. "I'll bet that whatever is causing it is also creeping out all the wildlife."

The feeling didn't dissipate as they walked on. In fact, it got stronger and stronger. After about an hour and a half, Kayla noticed that Devin was falling behind a little, and was short of breath.

"Are you alright?"

"Something's wrong…" he panted, resting his hands on his knees. "Something's sapping my strength away. I can feel it draining from me, even as I-"

Just as he was about to finish the sentence he collapsed in an exhausted heap on the ground. Kayla felt a slight _pang_ in the air just behind her, to her left, and she spun just in time to see a large bird of some sort hit the ground. Then birds began to fall from the trees all around her like rain. She quickly ran over to Devin and propped him up against a nearby tree trunk under a thick branch. Taking the datapad, she noted their current position.

"I'll be back with the holocron, Devin. I'll come straight back for you, I promise," she said softly.

"Be careful…" Devin struggled with the effort required to speak. "someone did this…must be…horribly powerful. Kayla…" Devin grabbed her knee and squeezed pathetically with all the strength he could muster. "Go…careful…don't die."

"Get some rest. I'll be fine, but I have to hurry. If anything happens, I'll signal Rusty to pick you up."

Kayla put the little datapad in a pouch on her belt, making sure to touch her lightsaber to ensure it was definitely there. With the lightsaber in place, she jogged off towards the coordinates.

* * *

After what felt like days, Devin woke up and was immediately confused by his surroundings. Suddenly remembering everything, he checked the time and his lightsaber: three hours had passed and his lightsaber was still in place on his belt.

_Three hours. Why isn't Kayla back? She should have had enough time to get the holocron, get back to the ship and get us both out of here by now._

He reached out with the Force, trying not to be too obvious about it. After a few moments, he felt a warm, comforting pulse in his chest and immediately recognised it as Kayla's doing. _So she's alive, and probably unhurt._ But then he felt another pulse immediately afterwards, which felt dark, claustrophobic and desperate. Devin's eyes opened wide as he realised what she was trying to tell him.

_Someone's hunting her down, and she's losing. I need to hurry._

* * *

As she walked onwards, trying not to think about Devin, so as not to give any other Force users anything to detect, Kayla noticed a rocky escarpment in the distance with what appeared to be a cave entrance on the side. She smiled to herself and jogged onwards through the trees.

As she reached the cave entrance, a feeling of utter dread filled her entire being, and she crumpled to the ground in terror, her long red-brown hair becoming matted with sweat.

_I don't understand…I'm terrified…of what? I don't know what's in there yet._

Now physically unable to move at all, Kayla started weeping uncontrollably, curled up in a foetal position at the cave entrance.

_But why?! I'm not afraid._

She felt her body start to compress tighter into the foetal position then, her thighs beginning to press into her shoulders harshly. Her tears flowed so freely that her chest began to cramp up as she hyperventilated. Soon she couldn't breathe at all, and her ribs felt like they were about to snap inwards from the pressure her own legs were applying to her chest.

"Are you afraid _now_, child?" came a deep, gravelly voice, seeming to have a weird reverb effect on it like it was engineered, not spoken.

She felt herself lift and her foetal position constrict even tighter. She began to rotate forwards slowly, gradually revealing the face of the voice. It had been nearly twenty seconds since Kayla had taken a breath, and almost a minute since she'd had a full one. Her entire body felt as though it were on fire, and she could feel her legs beginning to invade the area that should have been where her lungs were. Then she saw the man's grinning face, and her world went black.

* * *

Devin ran to the cave as fast as he could, attempting to keep his force senses open for any sign from Kayla or the dark side. No longer feeling tired at all, he was able to knock the last kilometre off in barely any time. As he reached the cave entrance, he noticed that the datapad was on the ground. He picked it up and put it in a belt pouch, and made his way inside.

After a few moment the datapad's signal went dead. Realising it was the cave itself causing the interference, Devin walked on without its aid. As he walked further and further in, he felt a wave of fear pulse through him whenever he got near a junction. Following his instinct, he went whichever way felt the scariest, knowing that's where Kayla's stalker would be. After three junctions, the wave turned into a throbbing headache, and he was forced to stop momentarily. Reaching out with the force again, he searched for the source, and found it was not far away. After a few metres, he spotted what appeared to be an archway with a large chamber inside, complete with sunlight.

_This is too easy,_ he thought as he entered the chamber_. Before, it was enough to sap my energy away and knock me out cold. Now, all it's doing me is leading me…_

Devin grabbed his lightsaber and ignited its white blade just moments before he felt someone standing right behind him.

…_into a trap._

"That's right, young fool. This was a trap."

* * *

Kayla woke up to find herself bound to an operating table which had been lifted onto its end. She was upright, but being held by her bound wrists, neck and ankles. Then she realised how tight the binding was and she grunted in pain.

"So you're awake, foolish girl."

She looked up and saw a tall man stepping into the light. It was the man whose face she saw before blacking out. He was roughly six feet eight inches tall, bald and with no facial hair, wearing loose-fitting black robes with stylish red embroidered patterns. He was a huge man, and his face was loaded with scars and cracked skin. _Disgusting_, she thought to herself.

"Does the face of power frighten you?"

"No, it _disgusts_ me," she spat back at the man. "And you're Corellian, aren't you. I'd recognise an accent like that _anywhere_."

The man chuckled slightly and turned to his left, then his right hand snapped back fast, and connected with Kayla's face.

"Your pathetic notions of origin do not concern me, stupid girl."

"Good thing then, 'cause Corellians hit a lot harder than that. It'd be a shame to be a weak Corellian person, wouldn't it..._Sith._"

"You know of us, then," the man responded calmly, ignoring her attempts to annoy him. "Good, it'll save me some time. I am Darth Rengar, and you cannot be allowed to take this holocron," he said, showing Kayla the holocron he held in his hand.

Just as Rengar finished speaking, Kayla felt Devin reaching out through the Force.

_He must have just woken up. _She didn't know how well sending a message would work, as they'd never been able to communicate more than simple feelings in the past. _I better let him know I'm okay first_. She sent out a pulse like the ones she always did for him, then realised something. _I have the datapad…I was meant to go back for him. He won't know where I am._ Struggling to think of how to translate that to a feeling, she thought of crawling through a cave, hoping that would be enough for Devin to go on.

Rengar had also noticed Devin reaching out through the Force.

"_Both_ of you cannot be allowed to take this holocron. I will deal with your weak friend first. You may watch. But first you will sleep."

With that, Rengar charged forwards at Kayla with so much speed she barely had time to register that he'd even moved, before she felt his hand at her throat. Rengar grinned as he pinched his index finger and thumb against the sides of Kayla's neck, cutting off the blood flow to her brain. She fought against Rengar's grip as long as she could, but she could feel her consciousness fading. The pain subsided, but the pressure increased. Then she woke up, hearing a pair of lightsabers thrumming away to her right. She panicked, not aware of her surroundings. Then her memory came flooding back as her eyesight returned, and she found she was still bound to the operating table.

"That's right, young fool. This was a trap," came Rengar's voice.

She turned to see Devin spin, just as he was slammed hard in the chest by a Force Push. He hit the ground some twenty metres away, and promptly had the air removed from his lungs. He stood and regained his breath, but Rengar was on top of him in milliseconds, and hammered down on the back of Devin's neck with his forearm. Devin hit the deck again, but had regained his breath by now and rolled away to his left and stood up. He brought his lightsaber up and blocked an overhead swing from Rengar's dark purple lightsaber.

_My lightsaber!_

"That's mine, Rengar. Get your own lightsaber," she yelled.

"Kayla!" Devin yelled back, surprised to find her across the room from him.  
"Focus, fool," Rengar snarled, and again used the Force to send Devin sailing across the chamber.

Within moments, Rengar had closed the gap and was swinging furiously at Devin, scoring dozens of nips along Devin's arms and chest, tearing his shirt to shreds.

Kayla immediately recognised Rengar's lightsaber form as Shien, just as Devin was being pushed back ruthlessly. Although he was able to block Rengar's attacks, Rengar seemed to be striking in such a way that was putting Devin off-balance with each block. Rengar's lightsaber was simply bouncing off Devin's, sending the tip straight at Devin every time.

_Shien form is designed to be aggressive without sacrificing any defence, using the attacker's hits against them and counter-attacking constantly,_ Kayla remembered Kyle saying.

But before she could say anything useful to the bleeding, bruised and ailing Devin, Rengar used the Force to pick Devin up by the throat and lift him off the ground. Then he squeezed.

"_Go to hell!_" Devin choked, "_Sith!_"

"All in time, Padawan," Rengar mocked calmly. "But first, I have a young girl to have fun with. Care to watch? I may be a Sith, but it just wouldn't be Pazaak to allow her to witness a beating and deny you the same pleasure."

Rengar threw Devin across the room again, this time he hit another operating table and landed on the ground next to it. Groaning in pain from the broken ribs the impact had caused, he struggled to his feet, but instead was lifted by the throat again and slammed into the operating table.

"Now, be silent and still."

Rengar used the same restraints on Devin, then turned to face Kayla.

"You forgot about _her,_" Devin grunted as he used the last of his strength to break Kayla's operating table in half with the Force, releasing her wrists.

Kayla quickly removed the restraints from her neck and ankles, just as Rengar turned back around to face Devin.

"I said be _silent,_" he yelled angrily, punching Devin in the face hard enough to knock him unconscious.

Kayla used the time to take her lightsaber back from Rengar, wrenching it from his belt with the Force.

"And _I _said get your _own_ lightsaber."

Rengar spun around and sent a violent Force Push at Kayla, but she simply batted it away and charged straight at him. Knowing that Rengar was using Shien form, and expecting that it was all he knew, Kayla had decided it was a bad idea to try and use Shii-Cho form as Devin had. Kyle told them to learn Shii-Cho and another lightsaber form of their choosing. Devin had chosen to learn Soresu, the defensive form, while Kayla had chosen Juyo, the hyper-aggressive attack form. Kyle warned her that only a handful of Jedi had ever mastered it, as it brought the user perilously close to the dark side. _But now is not the time for restraint. The future of the galaxy is at stake if I can't beat this guy._

Rengar took a half-step backward in preparation and lit his bright red saber, a mocking grin spread over his face. Kayla leaped in the air, straight over Rengar's head, and swept his feet out from underneath him as she landed. Rengar grunted with irritated fury as he fell on his back, leaping instantly to his feet in time to block a heavy overhead blow. Rengar spun with the impact and swept his saber across Kayla's waist, but Kayla had leapt above the blow and was countering again with an upward strike. Rengar was getting confused by the randomness of her attacks, and she could feel his frustration through the Force.

"Your form is sloppy, Sith," she mocked, a big grin on her pretty face.

"You are nothing but a Padawan!" Rengar snarled. "I am apprentice to Darth Caeer, Lord of the Sith! I will show you real power, child. I will taste your blood today."

Kayla just grinned a little wider as Rengar bolted at her, augmenting his speed with the Force. Suddenly, he was gone. Kayla immediately tried to detect him through the Force, but he was just…gone. Losing her momentum entirely, she became frustrated and angry with herself for being so arrogant.

_I should have known it wasn't going to be easy. He beat Devin pretty easily, what chance do I really have?_

"None."

Kayla turned in surprise, just in time to see Rengar's lightsaber coming straight for her head. She knew it was too late to dodge or do anything about it. _This is it,_ she thought, _my last moment. I've failed the galaxy before I even started._ She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. But instead of that, all she heard was a short _buzz_ followed by the clatter of metal on duracrete. Opening an eye, she saw Rengar a few feet away on the ground, with Devin's lightsaber next to him.

"Kayla! The lightsaber!" she turned to see Devin gesturing wildly at the lightsaber he's just propelled at Darth Rengar with the Force. Realising in an instant what had happened, she tugged at the hilt with the Force and it came sailing into her left hand. She ignited the white blade and took a deep breath. _You just got extremely lucky, Kayla. Don't mess this up again. This is important._

Remembering her training with the gatekeeper, and everything he'd told her about the Juyo form, she emptied her mind of everything but the battle. Feeling the Force flow through her and her lightsabers, she let the battle consume her. She felt Rengar's rage at being given such a hard time, his determination to kill her and Devin, and his devotion to his master. She felt his decision to leap straight at her moments before he'd even made it. Kayla dropped to the ground and pushed at Rengar with all she could muster, sending a telekinetic blast at him that propelled him across the chamber and into a wall. He scowled in annoyance before charging back at her with Force-augmented speed, only to be met with a white and purple storm of energy coming from the small girl. Rengar tried desperately to parry the blows, but Kayla was so fast with the two lightsabers, and so erratic and random with her movements that Rengar simply couldn't keep up with her. Her blows weren't overly powerful, as she wasn't very big or strong, but they were extremely quick and all aimed at the body. Rengar was clearly well trained in lightsaber combat, but Kayla surmised that he hadn't had much experience with dual-wielding opponents. She deliberately attacked two different target areas as quickly as she could, forcing him to expend all his energy just to block the attacks with his single lightsaber. Pretty soon Rengar was showing signs of fatigue.

Rengar, now exhausted and knowing he couldn't hope to beat the girl in an outright swordfight, resorted to raw power. He pushed Kayla away, and held his left hand out in front of him. Kayla felt his sudden focus through the Force and looked down. Her eyes went wide as she saw electricity seeming to appear on his hand.

Rengar smiled at her. "I promised you real power."

Rengar's hand raised, pointed straight at Kayla. The electricity shot from his hand, and she instinctively raised her lightsaber to block it, but realised quickly that she didn't have the physical strength to hold back the force of the attack with one hand. Rengar walked forward casually, increasing the intensity of the lightning and forcing Kayla to concede ground. The electricity was starting to burn her hands, and her arms were going numb. Rengar started laughing as her face betrayed her struggle.

"So my form is sloppy, is it?"

Kayla gritted her teeth as the pain began to take control.

"Go on, child. Do what you must to defeat me. You're going to have to dig deep to win here."

Kayla felt her anger rising with Rengar's challenge. He stopped the Force Lightning assault and picked her up by the throat, then slammed her into a wall, her feet dangling above the ground.

"Let me help you to be angry," he said softly with a sick grin.

Kayla choked and struggled, trying to free herself, but Rengar was far too strong. Then she felt his other hand stroking her midriff, rising up to her right breast and squeezing it roughly. Kayla's eyes went wide with disgust and surprise, and she struggled all the more to free herself.

"How does this make you feel, Padawan? Did the Jedi teach you to deflect sexual assault?" Rengar laughed loudly as his hand went in search of other parts of Kayla to violate. Kayla began to cry as she realised the only thing she was really capable of doing right now was be choked and molested by the Sith Apprentice.

"That's it," he teased, his hand now squeezing her ass. "Let go, just let your anger flow naturally. Only then will you be able to defeat me and stop the Sith Empire from returning to the galaxy. Only a weak Jedi tramp would allow me to do this to her."

Kayla snapped, knowing that Rengar was right. She had to stop him right here and now or there would be no hope for anyone. Starting to go light-headed from the lack of oxygen, she tried to use the Force to lift her lightsabers from the ground, but Rengar saw it coming and batted them aside. Becoming desperate, she swung her legs up around Rengar's chest and locked her ankles behind his back, clinging to his torso as he continued to hold her up by the throat. Rengar looked down at Kayla's little legs and laughed heartily.

"You weak, pathetic, joke of a Padawan. You couldn't even hurt me with your lightsabers," Rengar mocked, giving the girl's throat even more pressure.

Kayla's anger became blind fury as she tried desperately to augment her physical strength with the Force, but to no avail. _I'm too drained, I have nothing left to draw the Force from._

Rengar's laughter increased as Kayla's face turned an inhuman shade of purple. Knowing that she was moments away from completely losing consciousness, she put every bit of energy she could muster into her legs and squeezed Rengar's ribcage with every muscle in her lower body. Rengar still had his hand on Kayla's ass when she felt his ribs bend violently against the pressure from her little thighs, and it was still there when she felt and heard the loud _crack_ as she broke four of his ribs. Rengar stopped laughing instantly, completely taken by surprise at the sudden burst of strength from such a small woman, and dropped Kayla to the ground. She laid there for several moments furiously gulping down air as fast as possible, letting her body recover from the humiliating and painful torture Rengar had put her through.

"Nice work, Kayla! That was unreal!" Devin cheered from his spectator's position. "Now free me and we'll get some information from him."

"Not yet," she said, turning back to Darth Rengar, who lay collapsed on the ground clutching his chest, in absolute agony. "First I have some payback to dish out."

"Wait, remember what Kyle said. The Jedi don't strike in anger, and we never kill unless there is no other way."

"Pathetic…" Rengar grunted.

Kayla punched Rengar in the face as hard as she could, and as he fell to the ground she leapt on top of him and sat astride his chest, squeezing his broken ribs. Rengar screamed in pain, trying desperately to pry her thighs apart.

"I'm not a Jedi. I'm a Padawan. And there is no Jedi Council, no one to tell me what is or isn't right. And nobody to stop me from hurting you as much as I want," Kayla said coldly before squeezing tightly again. Rengar screamed again, but stopped trying to pry her legs apart, instead seeming to relish in the pain. Then she stopped squeezing, and started fishing for information.

"How many Sith are there?" she asked.

"You Jedi know nothing. There are only ever two, a master and an apprentice."

"Why work with the Chiss?"

Rengar simply laughed at her. Kayla spread her thighs as far apart as she could, causing her ass to press down painfully on his chest. Rengar's eyes went wide, and he tried in vain to lift her off of him.

"Where are you based?" she asked, totally calmly.

"Forget it, girl."

Rengar managed to lift Kayla slightly off of him and started to sit up, but she just wrapped her legs around his chest again and resumed squeezing, causing him to collapse in pain and her to repeat the question.

"One more time. Where are you based?"

"Again, stupid girl, forget it. I'm a Sith, you can't torture anything useful out of me. And you can't kill me, so you may as well just let me leave."

Kayla thought about that as Devin interjected with his opinion.

"He's right, we have to let him go. We're not even supposed to be here on Tython, if we kill him it will start a war with the Chiss. Let's just grab the holocron and get out of here."

"No," she answered back. "We can't kill him, but we can't just leave him to go back to his master and grow stronger."

She released her thighs from Rengar's ribcage, drawing an enormous sigh of relief from the Sith Lord, then stood up, purple lightsaber in hand. Swiping quickly from left to right, she amputated both Rengar's hands, then using the Force, she knocked him unconscious and let his body collapse to the ground.

"Now we can leave," Kayla said, releasing Devin's restraints.

Devin walked over to Darth Rengar's body and took the Jedi holocron, then stared at Kayla.

"You know he can just get new droid hands, right?"

"Yeah, he can," she admitted, "but he won't be able to channel the Force as well through those, and well, he touched me. He deserved to have his hands cut off."

"It just seems a bit, un-Jedi-like, if you know what I mean."

"I don't think so. He was never going to change sides, and we can't exactly prosecute him. I think we've done okay. But we should go; he won't stay snoozing for long. We have about thirty minutes, tops, before he wakes up."

The two Padawans took the holocron and ran for the cave exit, calling Rusty to bring the X-Wing over and pick them up.

"So," Devin began to ask, carefully choosing his words, "that was a big guy, and you cracked his ribs like he was a gizka. How did you get so strong?"

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Kayla smiled, "he's a huge guy, I'm only small, so he wasn't expecting it, that's all."

"Right, because every girl is that strong…" Devin dismissed with a wave of the hand. "Just make sure you save that sort of thing for the enemy."

"I have heaps of ways of getting what I want out of you. That's just one of them," she teased. "Besides, Dev. You don't need to keep your guard up around me," Kayla's put on her cutest, most innocent expression. "I'm just a small girl," and with that, she winked at Devin before jogging off towards the waiting X-Wing.

As impressive as her skills were, and as easily likable as she was, Devin couldn't help wondering how Kayla was so calm and even flirty after such a serious encounter. The last thing he could imagine her wanting to do right now was flirt. And how was she so cold, calculated and worst of all, seemingly ignorant of the consequences of torturing and mutilating a man? He _was_ a Sith Lord, but it wasn't the Jedi way to do any of those things. Not according to Kyle the gatekeeper, anyway. But Kyle had said that the other holocron had a different gatekeeper, a 'lovely young Jedi'. Devin couldn't wait to meet this gatekeeper and hear their thoughts on Kayla's actions.

The problem was, he wasn't so sure that Kayla's actions were wrong.


	4. The Deal

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 4 – The Deal**

Four months on from their battle with Darth Rengar, Kayla and Devin sat in Devin's apartment to hear what the two gatekeepers had to say of their progress. They had been very busy, keeping up with their practise regimen and lessons from the two holocrons' gatekeepers. But they had also been active around the streets of Coruscant, attempting to find anyone else who may be Force-sensitive, as well as gathering as much intel on the brewing Chiss war as they could. So far they had not found anyone who could use the Force, but they had discovered that the general feeling on Coruscant was one of anger, but trust that the Republic Senate would follow the will of the people. On Corellia though, it was much worse. Senator Barbarus had sparked fury throughout the Corel system whenever an announcement was made about anything to do with the Chiss, and that sentiment was beginning to echo throughout the major Republic systems. It was made especially worse when a report on the holonet advised that the planet Adumar had been invaded by the Mandalorians. Barbarus went public almost immediately and slammed the Mandalorians for what he called an 'opportunistic attack on a peaceful Republic world in an attempt to gain the sympathies of the Chiss', vowing that the Republic would not stand idle.

Kayla and Devin knew better than to trust a politician or a holonet report, and did some digging, contacting friends in the Corellian military. After a solid week of research, they met up at Devin's apartment to collate their results and consult the Jedi holocrons.

"So what have you found out from your military friends?" asked the second holocron's gatekeeper, a staggeringly beautiful young woman, short and slight of build with long brown hair; one of the great Jedi Masters of what Devin and Kayla had come to know as the post-Palpatine era.

"Well, the Mandalorian attack on Adumar was completely unprovoked, and it isn't strategically important to them in any way. It is, however, near the end of the Corellian Run, which would make it very useful for the Chiss," Devin explained.

"What else did you find?" Kyle asked Kayla.

"The Chiss don't seem to actually be attacking anything. It would appear that they're using the Mandalorians to prevent the Republic from seeing something."

"Very good," the female gatekeeper noted. "Have you found out anything more about the Sith?"

"Nothing," Kayla answered with a sigh. "They've just disappeared. I really want to know what their connection is to the Chiss. Those were absolutely Chiss ships that we saw. All I can feel is darkness clouding everything though."

"This is definitely troubling," Kyle commented. "Neither the Chiss nor the Mandalorians are typically Force-sensitive, and from the sounds of it, this Darth Rengar doesn't seem powerful enough to influence your thoughts and feelings on this matter either. I'd bet there's more to this Darth Rengar than you've seen so far. Jaina?"

"It definitely reeks of Sith involvement, that much is certain," the gatekeeper said.

"And speaking of Sith involvement, we would like to discuss your roles as Jedi, and what to do about the future of the Order," Kyle started.

Devin and Kayla grinned at each other, expecting the news to be good. Their expressions drooped when Jaina Solo's hologram started frowning.

"Your skills utilised in defeating the Sith Darth Rengar were very admirable, but the methods you employed and your reasoning for them are not what has historically been deemed 'the Jedi way'," she explained.

Kayla looked down at her boots, knowing that the gatekeeper was referring to her actions following the defeat of the Sith Lord.

"We don't do revenge. We do justice," Kyle explained. "_What_ you did isn't important. It's the reasons you did it."

"That's right, Kyle," Jaina continued. "Cutting off Rengar's hands was a very well thought-out plan, and wasn't done in any way to inspire fear into him. It was done, as you know, only to serve the purposes of weakening the enemy. He is a Sith Lord, and the pain was nothing to him. Losing his hands was just a way of weakening his ability to use them for the wrong reasons. But the torture and questioning…that's the issue here.

"All Jedi, whether mere apprentices or fully-fledged Jedi Masters, should know better. This Lord of the Sith was never going to reveal anything useful to you no matter how much you tortured him. The only useful information you _did _get out of him was that there are only two sith."

"Which you could have gotten from _us_, if you'd thought to ask," Kyle interjected. "You only wanted to hurt him the same way he hurt you. And that's _exactly _what the Sith are all about."

"We are in agreement on two aspects of these events, though," Jaina began to explain. "Your actions did not bring you any closer to the dark side, which is odd for a Jedi, and you completed your mission against a vastly more powerful foe than you were prepared for. This takes courage, trust, strength, and most of all control."

"We believe you two are the first people in generations to be worthy of the title Jedi Knight," Kyle said with a warm holographic smile. "Congratulations."

Kayla leaped into Devin's arms and screamed ecstatically, almost deafening him in the process, then turned back to the holocrons, beaming with excitement.

"Thankyou so much, Masters. We won't let you down."

"A great Jedi Master once said 'Always in motion, the future is'," Kyle warned, a serious expression now on his face. "You've both made an incredible start, but always be aware of the dark side. Remember, the old Jedi had rules in place for a reason. People of all races are capable of cruelty, but a Jedi is much, much worse. Don't turn into the Sith you are fighting against."

"You're Jedi, you're different to normal people," Jaina continued the warning. "You see the galaxy through different eyes. Remember your responsibility to the galaxy and all its people. Like Master Katarn said, don't become the Sith. But don't become the Jedi of the Old Republic either. As we explained in your lessons, they were blinded by the dark side and eventually became an instrument for the Sith to wield for their own purposes. They became arrogant while the Republic burned from the inside."

"_This_ Republic has been extremely fortunate to receive you two at a time like this," Kyle observed. "Nobody but yourselves are aware of the coming of the Sith, and if left to their own devices they _will_ take control over this entire galaxy. The Republic needs you; it needs the Jedi again."

"We've taught you all we can for the time being. When you need to consult us again, we will be here. And one more thing," Jaina paused, a proud smile on her beautiful but holographic face, "these holocrons are locked for use by anyone except yourselves from now on, unless you both state otherwise, together. There can be no risk of this information falling into the hands of the Sith. Now go out there and bring the Jedi back. Pass down what you have learned."

* * *

"So what do you suppose we should do next?" Kayla asked, sipping at an iced caf.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure," Devin began, "We need to find more Force Sensitives and recruit them, but we can't go around searching everyone in the galaxy one by one. We'll die of old age before we even get out of the Corellian Sector."

"You'd think in a time where nobody remembers what the Force even is, that it would be easier to find people with strange powers," Kayla added.

"You'd think…" Devin trailed off with a sigh.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Devin and Kayla spun around to face the source of the offer, which appeared to be a tall man in a dark grey suit and tie, his face obscured by a large wide-brimmed hat and a datapad. He lowered the datapad and flashed a grin to the two Jedi.

"And you are?" Devin asked.

"A friend," the man replied. "A friend who can help you. Care to join me?" he gestured towards two empty chairs at his table. Kayla just shrugged at Devin nonchalantly, so they got up and joined the stranger.

"My name is Jaru," he began. "I have many connections in rather high places, all of which are keen to see the Jedi reappear in the galaxy."

"Is that so?" Kayla said suspiciously. "You know, your voice is awfully familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"

The man chuckled. "No, I suspect that we've never met before, but you do know me. Perhaps we should go back to my office and chat in private about these things."

Kayla and Devin nodded to each other, not sensing any deception from Jaru.

"Okay then, I'll just have my vehicle brought round."

In less than five seconds a large black speeder was parked out the front of the tapcaf, and the door slid open to reveal a very plush interior. Jaru got in and sat down, then motioned for Kayla and Devin to get in.

"Nice ride," Kayla said, looking around at the luxury interior, complete with recliners, glasses and drinks.

"Thankyou very much. I always say, 'if you can afford it, you should just do it'. You get one chance."

"Good philosophy," Devin replied. "So, where's your office?"

"Oh it's a little place in the Senate District. Don't worry, Devin. I'm not abducting you," Jaru laughed.

"I never told you my name was Devin," Devin noted suspiciously.

"Oh, right. I'm not good at this sort of thing," Jaru admitted. "I'll explain everything in a few minutes. But we should get inside first, it isn't safe to talk here in public."

Devin and Kayla were completely confused. Jaru was not what he seemed, and yet there was nothing suspicious about him at all. He wasn't lying, as far as they could tell, and he wasn't nervous at all. Kayla gave Devin a look, which he returned subtly.

"Have you two ever been in the Senate building before?" Jaru asked.

"No, we live in the Corellian Sector," Kayla started. "No reason for us to be in that building."

"Hmm," Jaru trailed off, leading them silently to an elevator lobby.

Kayla and Devin became suspicious when they started noting some of the portraits in the hallways Jaru was leading them down.

"They're all past Chancellors," Kayla whispered. "This is the Supreme Chancellor's office."

"Right you are!" Jaru exclaimed as he opened the door. "Come on in and make yourselves comfortable. Drinks?"

"So you're Supreme Chancellor Grennar?" Kayla asked, taking a seat across the desk from Jaru.

"That's right," Jaru said, removing his hat and taking a seat himself. "Sorry for the deception. The Republic has many spies in it, unfortunately, especially here on Coruscant. Normally I'd send someone else in my place, but this is important enough to warrant my attention personally."

"So what's this all about, Chancellor?" Devin asked.

"You're the first new Jedi in thousands of years, Master Rokanh. The Republic is very close to a full-scale conflict, and we needed the Jedi's assistance _months_ ago."

"But what do you expect us to do? There's only two of us, and we're not Masters. We've only just become Jedi Knights. And anyway, how do you even know about the Jedi? Or us _being_ Jedi?"

"Well, there are only very few people around who know anything about the Jedi," the Chancellor explained. "In fact, we have about a quarter of the galaxy's Jedi awareness in this room right now. We developed technology based on instruments we found in the ruins of the old Jedi Temple that were once used to detect Force Sensitivity in a being. There are nine of my most trusted Generals going around the galaxy right now with these instruments, finding Force Sensitives and cataloguing them.

"We knew that one day, a trained Jedi would return to start a new Jedi Order. And when that day came, we would be prepared for it. We have the list of Force Sensitives, we have excavated the old Temple for use by the new Jedi Order, we even have funding and military assistance secured."

"I'm impressed," Devin admitted, "but one thing bothers me. Why do all this if you had no idea there were any Jedi returning to start a new Order?"

"We only went looking for Force Sensitives at first. It wasn't until we found you two that we decided to excavate the Temple," the Chancellor explained. "Now I've answered your questions. It's time you answer some of mine."

Kayla and Devin looked at each other, agreeing silently that it was fair enough.

"Okay, go on," Devin said.

"The reason we need the Jedi so badly is of course to do with the Chiss Ascendancy. We need a Jedi's insight, and in the very worst scenario, we may need a Jedi's leadership on the battlefield. My question is, how long would it take to train new Jedi?"

Kayla answered him. "It's difficult to say. All people are different. You'd have to factor in their personality, their emotional responses, their affinity with the Force, and the fact that we've never taught before. But I'd say years, generally."

"_Years_?" Chancellor Grennar exclaimed in disbelief. "We don't have that long. It didn't take you two that long to develop your skills."

"It's not that simple, Chancellor," Devin explained. "We were sort of forced into this position, due to the need to find and train more Jedi. We're not ready for battle."

"We appreciate the credits and time you've spent on all this, but the Jedi aren't an army," Kayla continued. "We'll do everything we can to help out, that's what we're in this for anyway. We'd do it without your help if we need to. But if you want to support us, we need time first."

"Hmm, I think I understand," Chancellor Grennar said, stroking his heavily bearded chin. "All good things come to those who wait," he said with a smile. "Okay, here's the deal then."

Kayla and Devin sat back in their chairs and prepared to absorb the conditions of the most important deal to take place in the galaxy in thousands of years.

"I will consult with you personally on your progress, and all requests you have will be made directly through me. You will receive a yearly budget from the Republic, which will be determined by the future Jedi Council along with myself. Also, selected members of the Jedi Council, when it's formed, will become military or political advisors of the highest level. We need your advice and insight into certain sensitive political events, and in particular, your assistance and leadership in military strategy. Does this sound fair?"

Devin looked at Kayla, who gestured outside the office.

"We need to discuss this privately first. Would you mind if we stepped outside for a moment?" Devin asked.

"Take all the time you need," Jaru said with a warm smile. "Would you like me to leave you two?"

"No, no, it's fine, Chancellor. We'll only be a few moments," Kayla insisted.

The two of them exited the Chancellor's office casually, closing the door softly behind them.

"So, what do you make of it?" Devin asked Kayla, running a hand through his wavy light brown hair.

"He seems genuine enough, I haven't picked up any signs of deception at all. He's willing to pay for us, so long as we help him with government and military things. I think that's a good deal."

"Remember what Jaina said though? Should we really be so intertwined with the Republic Senate and military?"

"He never said we couldn't disagree with him if he makes a stupid decision. He said the Republic needs our insight and advice to help deal with critical matters. What they do with that advice is up to them. Besides, he never said we had to fight for the military. We get to decide that on our own."

"We have to make that a clause," Devin insisted. "We are _not_ going to be a weapon."

"I agree," Kayla nodded, "he agrees to that, and he's got a deal."

"Shall we?" Devin smiled, gesturing at the office door.

They walked back into the Chancellor's office and sat down again at the desk.

"So," the Chancellor started, "what's the verdict?"

"We'll sign off on this deal," Kayla said sternly, "on one condition. We will definitely be aligned with the Republic; we aren't mercenaries. But we cannot be obligated to fight for the Republic military, only to be advisors and planners. We will decide ourselves if the situation requires the Jedi. We can't be used as a tool to frighten everybody."

"I see. I'd rather hoped you wouldn't say that," Jaru admitted with a nervous smile. "But don't get me wrong, I understand perfectly why you would request that. I know all about the Old Republic and the Old Jedi Order, and the mistakes they both made."

He looked across at Devin, his hands on the desk in front of him, then at Kayla.

"Okay," Jaru agreed, "it's a deal. The Jedi Council will decide if the Jedi are required to fight or not. The Republic will not have a say. Now, if you'll both sign here…"

Devin and Kayla both signed their names, all but confirming their place on the future Jedi Council.

"May this be the start of a productive and mutually beneficial relationship for both the Republic and the Jedi Order," Chancellor Grennar announced happily.

"And may the Force be with us," Kayla added.

* * *

"Nicely done," Jaina said after examining the deal made with Chancellor Grennar. "This is a far better arrangement than we ever had in the past. The Chancellor sounds like a good man, for once."

"It certainly seems that way. But that's why that extra clause is so important," Kyle added. "What about this list of his?"

"We've got it here, I'll load it onto my datapad," Devin produced the datapad as he spoke, slotting the thumb-drive in and producing the list of potential Jedi onto the screen.

"So few," Kayla said disappointedly.

"I thought there would be more too," Kyle agreed. "If that's all there is, then that will have to do. The sooner they're all trained up, the sooner we can have actual Force-users out looking for potential Jedi instead of the Generals."

"So there's one here on Coruscant and two on Ansion," Kayla thought out loud. "I reckon we should find the Coruscant one first before going to Ansion. Having three Jedi would make finding those two a lot easier."

"I agree," Jaina said. "It would be best to give him some training too. Remember, we won't help you this time. You're on your own with these three."

"I'd go so far as to say that you shouldn't even introduce them to us until they're ready. You should be able to handle all the training yourselves by now," Kyle added. "You have to learn at some point, and now is as good a time as any."

They were interrupted suddenly by a call from the Chancellor on Kayla's comlink.

"_Jedi Talus, come in. Jedi Talus, please respond."_

Kayla took the comlink from a belt pouch and raised it mouth-high. "I'm here, Chancellor."

"_There's a situation developing downtown in the Corellian Sector, not far from you. Some hard-core Corellian activists have gathered and are attempting to march on the Senate. The CSF have been despatched, but they will take some time to get there."_

"Shouldn't they be able to handle this on their own?" Kayla asked, confused.

"_The activists are being led by Senator Barbarus."_

Kayla and Devin exchanged confused glances.

"_He's threatening to pull Corellia's forces out of their stationed posts to fight the Mandalorians at Adumar. I need you two to go in there and front the CSF, and convince Barbarus to bring it up in the Senate. Try to keep casualties to a minimum, we can't lose Corellia's support."_

"Why us though?" Kayla asked.

"_Because the person who reported the whole thing claims to be Lenny Tanski – first name on the list. He reported it an hour before it started."_

* * *

Kayla and Devin ran over to the CSF captain leading their forces, and had to yell to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

"Captain," Kayla yelled, "I'm Jedi Talus, this is Jedi Rokanh, the Chancellor sent us to assist you."

"I don't know what a Jedi is, but if the Chancellor sent you then that's good enough for me," the captain replied. "What kind of skills do you have?"

"Well, we were sent here to convince Senator Barbarus to stand down, and to find a young man named Lenny Tanski," Devin explained. "So I'll stay with you and make sure nothing goes wrong on the riot front, and Jedi Talus will try and push her way to Barbarus."

The captain shrugged the proposal off in disbelief. "If you kids think you can handle it, go right ahead. That Lenny kid is just behind the blockade lines. Been a real hassle, trying to get inside the lines and 'help us out'," the captain said in annoyance, emphasising the quotes with his fingers.

"Alright then, I'll see you soon. Wish me luck," Kayla said with a wink.

Devin went the opposite direction and quickly found Lenny behind the barricade with two CSF officers holding him back. He was a solidly built guy with military-style cropped black hair, a tanned complexion and a glint in his eye.

"You're Lenny Tanski?" Devin asked him.

"That's me. You with them?" he said in a thick Corellian accent, gesturing wildly at the two CSF officers. "Can you get them off me? I'm only trying to help."

"Can't let you do that," Devin replied, shaking his head. "You're a civilian. If you get hurt, the paperwork will be unbelievable."

"But I can help out!" Lenny insisted. "I have powers, I can show you!"

"No need, man," Devin dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Show me after this is done. I'm expecting quite a show."

"You don't seem surprised that I have powers," Lenny said quizzically. "Who are you?"

"My name's Devin Rokanh. I'm a Jedi. A Knight of the Republic," Devin said proudly, tapping his lightsaber hilt. "Stay there, man. Watch what me and my friend Kayla can do first."

Kayla made her way around the crowd to the back where Senator Barbarus was still standing at a podium, complete with inbuilt outdoor sonic replication equipment. Before she could get there, he began speaking.

"We are marching today to implore the Republic to make a stand on the outer rim. The Mandalorian invasion of Adumar cannot be allowed, and if the Republic won't fight them, then Corellia will!"

The crowd cheered madly, getting even more agitated. Kayla could sense their anger rising with each word the Senator spoke. She could feel the impact the words were having. Almost like they were emphasised with the Force…

_I'm sure of it now. Barbarus is a Force-user. And he feels distinctly like a Dark Side user to me. This isn't good at all. I hope I'm not out of my depth._

Kayla kicked the thought immediately from her mind. There was no room for negativity here. She had a job to do, and she intended to do it properly.

Suddenly a blaster went off somewhere in the Corellian activist crowd. Kayla looked around desperately for a victim, but saw nothing. Then another shot was fired, this time hitting a bystander; a woman of about forty years. Then the CSF captain issued an order to start detaining the more violent ones and all hell broke loose.

Then a voice came over the CSF comlinks – it was Devin.

"_Cease fire! Cease fire everyone! This is Jedi Rokanh. Do not detain the Corellians. Stand your ground, but do not attack!"_

Nobody listened to the command.

_The captain must have 'forgotten' to tell the troops of our status,_ Kayla thought to herself.

Then Devin leaped over the CSF line and ignited his white lightsaber, deflecting all the blaster shots safely into the sky. Kayla smiled, then made her way to the base of the podium.

"Senator Barbarus," she yelled over the crowd, "my name is Jedi Talus. I'm here to talk with you about this situation."

"A Jedi! My word, isn't this a privilege," Senator Barbarus exclaimed with a chuckle. "Hasn't been one of you for thousands of years. But my dear Jedi, I'm afraid I can't accommodate your request. There is nothing to talk about. The Republic refuses to act, while the people of Adumar burn. Sooner or later it will be Corellia or Coruscant who takes the force of the Mandalorian impact."

"Then perhaps you should bring it up in the Senate, where this kind of thing belongs?" Kayla suggested. "Instead of out here in the street, inciting violence to all these Corellians, and getting people hurt, I mean."

"It's their choice if they choose to stand in our way, we can't be blamed for that."

"No, it's their _job_ to stand in your way. Please, Senator. Bring this up in the Senate, and call off the mob."

Kayla felt a prodding at her mind, then. A subtle prod that felt like a mosquito bite on her brain.

"You're Corellian, aren't you Jedi Talus? You'd call your own people a 'mob'? You of all people should know how they feel about all this."

"Which is why I know better than to fight in the streets over something that could be solved civilly and quickly in the Senate," Kayla replied, repressing her anger.

Then she felt the prod again. _I know what you're doing, Senator. And I don't like it._

She quickly shut her mind off to the Senator, and she felt him give her a warning pulse all around her brain. It wasn't very powerful, but she felt how much power he hadn't used, just for a split second, and it was frightening.

"You're a brave girl, Jedi Talus. Such strength of character, such honesty and defiance in your words. So very Corellian," Barbarus said with a smile, his surface demeanour not changing at all, "even if your accent _has_ been almost completely watered down." He stroked his chin, seemingly thinking of a reply. "Very well, my young Jedi. I'll bring this up in the Senate, for now. But you can tell the Chancellor that Corellia will have their day yet. Good afternoon, young Jedi."

Kayla made her way back to the CSF captain, only to see Devin using the Force to hold the Corellian crowd back, having disarmed all of them already. Lenny was standing behind the barricade with a big smile on his face, cheering Devin on.

"All Corellians, stand down," Senator Barbarus announced. "I will address our concerns to the Senate, and make our voice heard in front of the entire Republic. Corellia will never be silenced!"

The crowd cheered again, then slowly dispersed back into the streets. Devin took a big sigh of relief, then made his way back to the CSF captain.

"That was hugely impressive, Jedi. I'm glad we had your help. I've never seen anything like what you two did just then! Totally amazing. Are there more Jedi around? I really wouldn't mind learning that stuff, you know. Think how it could help the CSF-"

"-it doesn't work that way, sorry captain," Kayla interrupted. "But you'll see us again, don't you worry about that."

"It was a pleasure, captain. See you around," Devin waved as he turned to walk off.

Kayla and Devin made their way to Lenny, who was standing and staring in awe at the two Jedi.

"That was awesome," he said in a low tone. "You can do that telekinesis stuff too. And what are those swords you were using? They look like they're made of light or something. Wait a minute," he scratched his head for a moment. "That's what you two wanted me to hang around for, isn't it. To talk about this stuff."

"You got it," Devin confirmed casually. "C'mon, let's go back to my place. We'll explain everything to you over some ales."

"Sounds good to me. You guys seem pretty cool, you know."


	5. The Defection

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 5 – The Defection**

Several weeks on from the day of the Corellian Sector Riot, as it had since been dubbed, Lenny was making fine progress in his training. He had built his own orange double-bladed lightsaber and had begun learning the Shien saber form, and already had a good grasp of Force-telekinesis. Kayla had been handling most of the training while Devin had been consulting with the Chancellor on the matter of Adumar's Mandalorian invasion. It was almost night time when Devin returned from another meeting that day.

"So how did it go?" Lenny asked him.

"Not well," Devin said with a sigh. "Chancellor Grennar is of the same view as us; the Mandalorians aren't the real enemy here. The problem is, there's no way to prove anything, and Barbarus keeps pushing for retaliation."

"So Adumar just burns then?" Lenny asked, slightly frustrated by the news.

"Adumar's a lost cause, Lenny," Kayla explained. "The local population have all been killed or put to work, and the entire planet is under Mandalorian control. No one can even approach the planet without being shot down. What we should be doing is going to Ansion to get those two Force Sensitives out, before the Mandalorians attack that too."  
"It's not that simple," Devin interjected. "Grennar explained that Adumar is actually under Chiss control now, and the Mandalorians were just the invasion force. It's when the Mandalorians pull out of Adumar that we should be worried."

"Wait, so the Republic knows that the Mandalorians and Chiss are in league? Why have the holonet reports not said anything about it?" Lenny asked.

"Probably because they don't trust Barbarus not to kick up a big fuss about it," Kayla surmised.

"Well, actually," Devin began, "they don't trust Barbarus, period. I told Grennar what you said about him, Kayla, and we agreed that it's a bit suspicious that he's pushing so hard for war with the Chiss and Mandalorians. His arguments aren't exactly convincing, yet people cheer for him wherever he goes."

"You think he's behind this somehow? Like he's in place undercover?" Kayla asked.

"We think so. He's pushing for a war with the Chiss; a war we can't possibly win, and he can use the dark side of the Force," Devin explained.

"Let me guess, then," Lenny said confidently. "Grennar wants us to investigate Senator Barbarus?"

"No," Devin answered quickly, with an added shake of the head. "That would be suicide. If he _is_ a Dark Jedi or even a Sith, having us investigate him would be too conspicuous. It would blow his cover, and he'd be forced to kill us all to hide the evidence."  
"And if he's been using the Force to influence people's opinions, then he's probably more than a match for any of us," Kayla finished.

"What the Chancellor wants us to do is go to Ansion and recover the other two Force Sensitives and a list of dignitaries and other important people, and bring them all back to Coruscant as fast as possible," Devin announced. "Because if we're right about the Mandalorian strategy, Ansion will be the next planet hit."

* * *

"My Lord, how did the riot go?" Rengar asked his master.

"Poorly, apprentice," Darth Caeer replied with a hiss. "It seems your Jedi friends are beginning to show their presence. I ran into the girl; Talus, her name was. She's powerful."

"Surely not a match for you though, my Lord."

Darth Caeer snarled, then brought his right hand up in a pinching gesture. Rengar began to rise up off the ground, choking and grasping desperately at his throat.

"Master!" he squeaked. "Master!"

"Surely not a match for me, apprentice," Caeer replied, releasing Rengar, who fell to the ground and quickly recovered his breath.

"What are we to do now, Master?"

"We cannot risk drawing the Jedi into this directly just yet. You are not powerful enough to defeat either of them," Caeer explained coldly. "It seems you have some work to do, Rengar. Prove you are not completely useless. Go to Adumar and ensure the Mandalorians are on schedule for their next assignment."

* * *

"Dev, we can't take your X-Wing," Lenny surmised.

"Yes we can," Devin replied. "We need it in case the freighter gets shot at. I'm taking the X-Wing, you and Kayla are taking the freighter," he explained, pointing to an old Corellian disc-shaped freighter nearby.

"This old thing? Seriously?" Kayla asked.

"Don't let its looks fool you, that thing is Creo's latest work of art. It's almost as fast as my X-Wing," Devin smiled.

"I'll be the judge of that," Kayla dismissed. "C'mon, Lenny, let's go. We'll see you on the surface, Dev."

Devin climbed in the X-Wing and took off hastily, Rusty sitting proud in the droid slot. Lenny sat himself down in the freighter's co-pilot chair and plotted the course to Ansion as Kayla powered everything up.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Course is plotted, ready to roll."

"Off we go then," she said, firing the Repulsorlift engines, then gently easing on the sublight drives. The freighter groaned a little, but Kayla thought it responded awfully well for an ancient old ship.

After a long, boring flight, the freighter finally came out of hyperspace a few thousand kilometres from Ansion's atmosphere, and almost immediately the comms crackled into life.

"_Rescue One to Rescue Two, respond._"

"Rescue Two here, what's the story, Dev?" Lenny asked.

"_I've made_ _contact with Senator Golan, and he's given us a place to land. He wants to have a word with us as soon as we touch down,"_

"Good word or bad word?" Lenny replied.

"_Bad, but for good reasons. You'll see what I mean when we meet with him. Just follow me in."_

Kayla matched speed with the X-Wing and followed his trajectory down to Ansion's surface, setting down right in the middle of Cuipernam in the Government district. As they debarked they were met by Senator Golan, a tall native Ansionian.

"Come inside to my office," the senator insisted. "Chancellor Grennar has been in contact with me. We have much to discuss."

The three Jedi made their way into Golan's office, where they were ushered into comfortable chairs by the senator.

"Well, first thing's first, then. I'm Senator Makrus Golan. Welcome to Ansion, my young friends."

"Thankyou very much, Senator," Kayla replied. "I'm Jedi Talus, this is Jedi Rokanh and Padawan Tanski."

"I have heard stories about Jedi," the senator said, "Thousands of years ago, some Jedi came here to Ansion to help resolve a dispute. Other than that though, I'm afraid I don't know much about the Jedi."

"Nobody does, Senator, the Jedi have been extinct for thousands of years," Lenny noted.

"That would be why, then," the senator said with a smile. "But we have much more pressing matters to discuss. What's this about the Mandalorians?"

"As you well know, Adumar has been invaded by the Mandalorians," Devin explained. "But it's now under the control of the Chiss. We have been in discussions with the Republic military and the Chancellor, and we agree that Ansion is the next likely target, strategically speaking."

"That would make sense, Jedi Rokanh," Golan said grimly. "It would help give the Chiss a clear run from Csilla to the Core. So you believe the Chiss and the Mandalorians are in alliance?"

"We're certain of it," Kayla answered. "The Chiss appear to be using the Mandalorians as an invasion force, to keep their own involvement secret while still gaining a foothold. We need to get yourself and some others off-world as fast as we can."

"How much of this intel is certain?" Golan asked sceptically.

"All of it, Senator. We can't afford to take our time here, Ansion could be in serious trouble any moment now," Devin answered insistently.

Senator Golan thought to himself for a few moments before replying. "Well, if the Chancellor wills it, and it's for Ansion's good, then I suppose we'd best get a move on. Pass me that list, Jedi Talus."

Kayla handed the list of people over to Golan, whose eyes lit up about halfway down the list.

"These two," he said, pointing at the two Force Sensitives' names, "they are to be taken with us as well?"

"Yes, we have reason to believe they are Force Sensitive, which means they could become Jedi like us," Devin answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, they are refugees. A Togruta girl from Shili and a Twi'lek from Ryloth who crashed here two years ago. They've never really fit in here, they're sort of outcasts. It's interesting that they may actually be of use to someone."

"Can you tell us where they are? We really need them to come with us," Kayla implored.

"I can do even better," the senator replied. "I can have them come straight here, immediately. But you need to do something for me too."

"What's that, Senator?" Devin raised an eyebrow.

"Promise me that the Republic will have a plan to move most, if not all, of Ansion's population off-world if there is an invasion. It's very noble to take all the people on this list, but it will mean nothing if the rest of the population dies."

"Don't worry, Senator," Devin assured him, "we'll speak to the Chancellor once we're off-world. I'm sure we can arrange something. But time is of the essence, we really need to get moving, right now."

Senator Golan began delegating tasks to various people, mostly to pack vital belongings and bring the listed people to the small landing pad where the freighter and X-Wing were. Within twenty minutes, all the people from the list – thirty-five in total – were assembled at the landing pad with their necessary belongings. Last to arrive were the two Force Sensitive girls. Lenny noticed them immediately.

"Wow, I'm really glad we came here."

Kayla gave him a quick glare, but Lenny didn't notice her at all. She grunted in annoyance, then got Devin's attention.

"I'm going to prep the engines. Get everyone on board," she said in a huff.

"What's got into you?" Devin asked her.

"Nothing," she snapped, "just get everyone on board so we can get out of here."

Devin turned back around and greeted the senator again, then quickly ushered everyone aboard. Everyone except the two girls were on board when an enormous explosion shook the landing pad and everything around it.

"What the hell was that?" asked one of the senator's aides.

Devin looked east, at the centre of Cuipernam, and saw shrapnel raining down in the distance, and plumes of black smoke rising from almost everywhere.

Kayla came rushing out of the freighter then, her eyes wide with panic.

"We've really got to get a move on. The Mandalorians are here."

"That's not all who's here," Lenny said, pointing at the distant smoke. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"No," Devin said grimly. "He doesn't have friends."

* * *

"Master," Rengar acknowledged through his wrist comlink, "I have arrived on Ansion ahead of the first wave, as instructed. Our Jedi friends have beaten me here though, and are evacuating some of the civilians. Should I destroy them, Master?"

"_No, Lord Rengar_," Darth Caeer replied. "_Hmm, interesting that I wasn't aware of their assignment on Ansion. The Chancellor appears to have become bolder."_

"Master?"

"_Do not engage the Jedi unless it is absolutely necessary. You aren't powerful enough; your training is not yet complete. Ensure the first wave of Mandalorian forces do their job properly, then return to Coruscant. We will evaluate our position."_

"Yes, my Master. It shall be as you command."

Darth Rengar clicked off the comlink, snarling in anger at his Master's command not to engage.

Changing the frequency, he then called the Mandalorian commander.

"Commander, proceed with the assault and report your success."

Ten seconds later, the comlink channel opened again.

"_Lord Rengar, first wave was completely successful. Proceed with assault as planned?"_

"Proceed, Commander."

Rengar stepped forward out of the shadows and walked slowly towards the landing pad where the Jedi were assembling their refugee cargo. A Mandalorian bomb went off to his left a few blocks away, smothering the entire area in thick, black smoke. As the smoke cleared, he ignited his red lightsaber and continued marching towards the landing pad, seething with anger at his Master's lack of faith in his abilities.

* * *

"You two, get in the freighter right now," Kayla said to the two Force Sensitive girls, "and get on the guns. Lenny, get in the pilot's chair and get them back to Coruscant as fast as possible."

"But I've never flown before, Kayla," Lenny replied. "And besides, I can help Devin fight this guy, you're the pilot, not me."

"Kayla, I'll fly the freighter. You and Lenny can take this guy no problem. Just look after my ship, okay?"

Kayla turned to see Devin boarding the freighter and firing up the engines.

"I hope all that training pays off, Lenny. This is about to get real," Kayla said sternly. "Just stay back as much as possible."

Lenny ignited one side of his orange saberstaff and dropped into the Shien pose, as Kayla ignited her Purple saber. Darth Rengar came through the smoke like a villain in a child's nightmare, red saber ignited and chest heaving with pure, seething rage.

"Talus!" he roared. "I will have my revenge, right now."

"You'll have to go through me first, Jack!" Lenny yelled excitedly.

"Lenny, I told you to stay back!" Kayla screamed, but it was too late. He leapt the forty metre distance to Rengar in less than a second, smashing down with an overhead attack, which Rengar easily blocked. He grinned amusedly back at Lenny before Force-pushing him several metres back. Lenny rolled back onto his feet and charged in again, this time striking down in a diagonal swipe, which Rengar again blocked. Lenny then ignited the other half of his saber staff, and began hammering away at Rengar's defence as fast as he could. He succeeded in pushing him back about five metres before Rengar batted his saberstaff aside and blasted him thirty metres away into a duracrete wall with Force Lightning. Lenny was knocked instantly unconscious.

Rengar turned his attention to Kayla then, just as the freighter roared off into the distance.

"You will pay for the humiliation I suffered last time we met," Rengar boomed.

"Go on then, show me what you've got," Kayla challenged, flourishing her purple saber.

Rengar growled in anger, then in a surprising burst of speed he closed the distance between them instantly.

"I have improved vastly. You have no chance, Talus."

Rengar began with a brutal flurry of attacks from all angles, his red saber flashing away like the tail lights of speeders whizzing about the Coruscant skylanes. Kayla blocked every blow with ease though, easily intercepting everything Rengar threw at her. Rengar then blocked a Force Push from his right. Snarling in annoyance, he raised his red saber just in time to block an overhead slash from Lenny.

"You won't get rid of me that easy, big guy," Lenny said slyly before launching into a flurry of attacks with his orange saberstaff.

Between Lenny and Kayla's attacks, Rengar was struggling to keep his ground. He was often forced to rely on his telekinetic attacks just to keep Lenny away from him long enough to block Kayla's intensely fast saber strokes. He knew this wasn't working – and more to the point, he knew his Master was correct when he told him he wasn't powerful enough. He had to do something to make this fight a one-on-one, and quickly, or he was going to lose.

"I'll go high, you go low," Lenny instructed, before charging in at Rengar again.

"No, Lenny it won't work! Stop!" Kayla screamed, but it was too late. Lenny leapt through the air to swipe downwards again at Rengar's head, but Rengar simply batted his saberstaff aside and pointed his left hand at Lenny, holding him in mid-air.

"Let him go, Sith! Put him down right now!" Kayla yelled, trying not to put too much emotion into her voice. Rengar simply smiled wickedly at her, then shot lightning at Lenny's chest, sending him flying across the landing pad and skidding into the X-Wing's front landing gear.

"Lenny!" Kayla screamed.

"Go get him, Kayla," he replied weakly.

Kayla thought the charade had gone on long enough now. _I wasn't expecting Lenny to be so reckless though. This should have been over by now. Time to get serious._

She dropped out of the defensive Soresu form, lighting her second lightsaber – a sky-blue-bladed one. She took the Juyo form guard, leading with her non-dominant left side.

"Your Padawan is down, Talus. It's only a matter of time before I crush you too," Rengar sneered.

"Congratulations, Rengar. You defeated a Padawan," Kayla mocked, "I'm not a Padawan, though. And up until now, I wasn't even trying."

"You lie, Jedi. And now, you die."

Rengar threw his red saber straight at Kayla, the blade spinning in the air like a propeller. Kayla just laughed, turning it off and sending it sailing back over to Rengar harmlessly, softly landing in the Sith Lord's hands. But before Rengar had time to get angry, Kayla had sprinted over to him, augmented by the Force, and started battering away at him with lightning fast saber strokes. Rengar was so out of his depth he couldn't believe it. Kayla's speed was terrifying, but unlike what Darth Caeer had been teaching him, her attacks weren't weak enough to be blocked easily. Even as strong and large as he was, his hands and arms were beginning to hurt from the force of blocking so many of Kayla's powerful strokes. He needed some time to recover from the assault. Using the force, he pushed himself backwards as he blocked another strike, giving himself a few metres, then Force-pushed directly at Kayla with everything he could muster. Rengar's eyes opened wide with fear when she simply leapt over the top of his blast and walked casually up to him, putting both her sabers away.

"How are those ribs, Rengar?" Kayla teased.

"You…what are you? How did you get so strong?" Rengar was babbling, backing away from her. "Stay away from me! I'll kill you!"

Rengar pointed his red saber at her and charged blindly, screaming as he ran. Kayla dodged the thrust easily and punched at his right arm, causing him to drop his lightsaber. Rengar stared at Kayla wide-eyed, puffing and panting with the fatigue of processing so much adrenaline. He screamed again, blasting lightning at her with all the energy that remained in him.

"Your electricity attack thing, it's pathetic now," Kayla mocked as she used the Force to redirect the lightning harmlessly away to her sides. "It was much better before, when you had proper hands."

"YOU did this to me!" Rengar yelled, saliva foaming at his mouth, his face purple with rage. "I'll kill you, Jedi, if it's the last thing I ever do!"

"I doubt it, _Darth_," she continued mocking. "The last thing you'll ever do is plead for your life, on your knees in front of your Master."

Kayla then used the Force to call Rengar's lightsaber to her left hand, and deftly cut off his entire left arm at the shoulder. Rengar let out a blood-curdling scream as the seared flesh cauterised quickly from the heat of the lightsaber blade.

"And to seal the deal, I think we'll get rid of this, too," she said, holding the red-bladed lightsaber in her hand. Rengar watched on helplessly as she took the saber apart and removed the red synthetic crystal from it, then used the Force to heat up the inner components. Rengar's lightsaber hilt burst into flames and dropped to the landing pad surface with a metallic clatter.

"I think I'll keep this," Kayla said, tossing the crystal up in the air and catching it again. "Red doesn't have to be an evil colour. I think it could be pretty."

Rengar just squirmed on the ground, clutching his cauterised nub in his remaining hand, cursing Kayla under his breath as she walked off.

"That was amazing!" Lenny spat excitedly. "You just took that guy apart like it was nothing! And I got it all on holo so I can study it later."

"You keep a holorecorder with you?" Kayla asked.

"Of course, I thought it'd be good to film stuff like that so I could study it in my own time."

Kayla was impressed with his dedication. _Hopefully it pays off in his training._

"_Rescue Two to Rescue One, come in Rescue One,"_ came Devin's flustered voice over the X-Wing's comms.

Lenny rushed over and answered it from the rear gunner's chair. "Rescue One here, what's wrong, Dev?"

"_We're being pursued by a full squadron of Mandalorian fighters, we're gonna need help. We've taken three of them down but there's nine more chasing us."_

Kayla rushed over and took the pilot's seat. "We'll be there in a minute, Devin. Just hang in there," she replied, before commanding Rusty to scan for enemy ships and plot a course back to Coruscant. Rusty beeped an affirmative, and brought up the scan results on the X-Wing's front and rear monitors.

"Looks like the girls got another one, there's only eight left," Lenny noted.

"I'm gonna come at them from starboard and above and try to scatter them so the girls can get an easier shot. Get ready to shoot the ones that break low," she advised him.

"You got it."

The X-Wing started making up the distance to the freighter, then Kayla moved up and to the right and began the attack, taking out one Mandalorian fighter and scattering the other seven. Three went high and four went low, Lenny and the two girls on the freighter guns managing one more kill each.

"Devin, jump to hyperspace now, before they get back in formation!" Kayla yelled into the comlink.

"_See you when we get back home,"_ Devin replied, then the freighter's hyperdrive kicked in and they disappeared into space.

"Punch it, Kayla."

Kayla also hit the hyperdrive then, and the X-Wing lurched forward, the stars blurring into lines, leaving the Mandalorians and Ansion far behind.

* * *

"Welcome back, Master Jedi," Chancellor Grennar greeted the group warmly at the Senate District Spaceport. "And Senator Golan, it's good to see that you got away safely. As we discussed on the holo, we will do our utmost for the people of Ansion in the dark times ahead."

"Thank you, Chancellor, although I'm not sure how much can be done for the people of Ansion now. The Mandalorians were quite…thorough, from what we saw from above," Senator Golan replied sombrely.

"We will discuss this matter later, with a proper Council, Senator," Grennar said. "For now, please follow my aides to your accommodations. We have provided full amenities and asylum for all of you. When the Council has been formed, we will call for your presence." He then turned his attention to Kayla and Devin. "We will convene in three hours' time to discuss the Mandalorian attacks. I'd like for you all to come."

"With all due respect, Chancellor," Devin began, "Lenny and the two girls are only new to this. Lenny's only just become a Padawan, and the two girls haven't even settled in here yet."

Grennar thought about it for a moment before replying. "Fair enough, Jedi Rokanh. You and Jedi Talus, then. Three hours' time in the War Room, don't be late."

* * *

"So, proper introductions, then," Kayla said happily, back at Devin's apartment after the girls had settled into their temporary accommodation. "I'm Kayla Talus, this is Lenny Tanski."

"Pleased to meet you guys," the Twi'lek girl replied. "I'm Liina Hriyek, this is Ashlyn Valos," she said, gesturing at the Togruta girl.

"I trust Devin explained a bit on the way here?"

"Yeah, he told us all about who you are and what we're in for," Ashlyn said with a grin, her voice a confident but sweet-sounding sing-song type, to go with her stunning Togruta looks.

"So what do you think? You up for it? It's not an easy thing, and it's a decision for life," Devin said with a serious tone.

"We were outcasts on our home planets, we were outcasts on Ansion, and now it's been taken by the Mandalorians and we're on Coruscant, as refugees," Liina answered dryly.

"Of course we're up for it," Ashlyn finished for Liina. "The Republic and the Jedi have given us a chance to make something of ourselves. To do our bit to prevent things like this happening to anyone else. It'd be an honour to join you."

"That settles it then," Kayla announced, walking over to them both. "Welcome to the Jedi Order, such as it currently is."

"Don't worry, Kayla. We'll help make the Order as proud as it once was," Lenny said with a proud smile.

Kayla thought for a moment, then mentally prodded Devin with an image of a holocron. He nodded to her, and they disappeared into an adjoining room, returning with the two holocrons.

"I know Jaina said we shouldn't show these guys, but with the way the conflict is progressing, we're going to need them as soon as possible," Devin whispered to Kayla.

"I know what you mean," she whispered back. "And we'll need to be doing other important things too. We won't be able to train them all the time."

As they walked back into the sitting room, all three sets of eyes widened and stared at the holocrons, which Kayla and Devin activated immediately, producing the two gatekeepers.

"Hey, I thought we told you this wasn't a good idea," Kyle said in his usual gruff manner.

"Sorry, Master Katarn, but we're in a bit of a gripe, here," Devin explained. "The conflict is quickly escalating into a war, and Kayla and I won't have enough time to teach these guys everything. We need you guys to step in a bit, just until they're capable of progressing on their own."

"Hmm, fair enough, I suppose. Care to explain, though?" Kyle asked.

Devin looked at the time, shaking his head. "We can't, Master. We have to meet with the War Council very soon. If you could go through some of the basics with these guys, just until we get back, then we'll explain everything."

"Okay, fine. At least introduce us, first," Kyle answered.

Going in clockwise order, Kayla introduced the new Jedi to the two gatekeepers.

"This is Liina Hriyek, Ashlyn Valos and Lenny Tanski. Lenny's had a bit of training already, but the two girls are fresh. They just arrived, actually."

"Ah, a Coruscanti, a Twi'lek and a Togruta," Jaina noted. "It's good to see some non-humans back in the Jedi mix. Hopefully before too long there will be many, many Jedi from all over the galaxy. It's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Master Jaina Solo, this is Master Kyle Katarn. But call him Kyle, titles make his skin crawl."

With that settled, Kayla and Devin took their leave and made their way to the War Room.

* * *

"Come in, Rengar."

"My Master," Rengar bowed, then knelt. "The Jedi have recruited three more to their ranks. A Togruta girl, a Twi'lek girl, and a human male."

"I am aware of this already, Lord Rengar."

Rengar began to rise, but Darth Caeer used the Force to hold him down in penitence.

"I never said you could rise. Rising is the mark of success, and yet you have not succeeded. In fact, you have disobeyed a direct order, AND failed."

Caeer called for his lightsaber, the long hilt slapping into his right hand and the deep red blade extending out with the mandatory _snap-hiss_.

"Master! Please, I will not fail you again," Rengar pleaded, unable to move from his kneeling position.

"No, you will not," Caeer said, totally emotionless. "The tiny Jedi girl took your hands, then she took your arm, then she took your dignity and your honour. I will take but one thing from you for your failure."

"Anything, my Master."

Darth Caeer swept down casually with the long hilt, the blade cutting swiftly and cleanly through Rengar's neck, cauterising his carotid artery immediately and leaving no mess. Rengar's head hit the floor with a dull thud and rolled away a few inches before his nose prevented it from rolling any further.

"So, apprentice, have you learnt anything from Rengar's display of utter weakness and failure?" Darth Caeer asked, turning to face an athletic, unutterably beautiful red-skinned Twi'lek girl of about twenty-five years.

"That he was a useless, ugly, pathetic, waste of space, Master, and that you will never have cause to treat me like that."

"I should hope so, apprentice. Remember his failure, however. The Jedi – particularly this Talus girl – are becoming powerful, and quickly. They are not to be underestimated, or you shall share Rengar's fate."

"Master, the girl is of no concern to me. She lacks my wiles, and my cunning. We will deal with her when the time is right."

"Very good, apprentice," Caeer said with a satisfied grin. "I am glad I decided to start training you when I did. You will be a powerful Sith, some day."

Caeer produced a long lightsaber hilt from his robe sleeve, and floated it gently across the room.

"Master, thank you," Caeer's apprentice said, curtseying reverently, then ignited the deep purple blades.

"Now go and continue your training, Lord Vorcyl. You have far to go before you are a match for Talus and the other Jedi."

* * *

"So we are agreed then that Republic Intelligence will gather as much information as they can, and our scout stealth ships will investigate Chiss and Mandalorian activity around Ansion," Chancellor Grennar asked the War Council in general, who all muttered their agreement.

"Very good," Grennar answered, finding the next point on his notes. "And finally, the Jedi. I think-"

The Chancellor's speech was cut short by an incoming transmission on the holoterminal.

"_Greetings, Chancellor. I am Mandalore, leader of the Mandalorians. I hope I'm not interrupting at a bad time."_

"Not at all, Mandalore. What is it that you want?" Grennar asked, letting annoyance creep into his voice.

"_It's not just about what I want, but about what you may want," _Mandalore answered. _"I have some information that may be useful to your war effort. All I ask in return is that we be allowed to join the Republic."_

"What?" came the reply from Admiral Bruodu, the grey-furred Bothan commander of the Republic Military. "You think you can just invade two entire Republic planets, then call us and join up?"

"Admiral, please. Let's at least consider this," Kayla said. "What kind of information are we talking about, here? And why would you want to just switch sides all of a sudden?"

"_We were tricked by the Sith. They told us we'd be handsomely rewarded for securing Adumar and Ansion, so we did it. They promised that there'd be no Mandalorian casualties. Eight of our pilots were killed, and we haven't gotten our credits yet. Then we heard that the Sith's apprentice was killed, so we're jumping ship. No one gets the best of the Mandalorians."_

"What about the information?" Admiral Bruodu asked impatiently. "Tell us what you're offering."

"_The information will be supplied when you accept our terms," _Mandalore replied. _"Firstly, we will have a seat on your War Council. Second, the planet Mandalore and its people will be fully integrated into the Republic, including trade and commerce. Third, we be allowed to train up your soldiers. They'll be better for it. And last, we be pardoned for Ansion and Adumar."_

"Talus," the Chancellor whispered. "What do you think?"

"Mandalorians don't like being cheated out of credits, Chancellor. As long as they're getting something out of it, they'll be loyal," Kayla replied.

"And how do we know we can trust you, Mandalorian?" Admiral Bruodu blurted out, arms folded.

"_Mandalorians don't like being used. We fight for honour, and there's no honour in cheating someone. You give us what we want, and we'll give you the best commandos in the galaxy."_

The only negative reaction was from Admiral Bruodu, who soon relented as well.

"Agreed, Mandalore. We accept your terms," Grennar said. "We will make this official at the next sitting of the Senate. We will be in touch with your Senator in the coming weeks."

"_You won't regret this, Chancellor. Now, about this information. Are you ready?"_

The entire room was buzzing with anticipation now.

"_I'm sure your Jedi have told you about the Sith, and how Jedi Talus here defeated Darth Rengar. Twice now, isn't it? Well, he was just the apprentice. There's a Master, too," _Mandalore explained.

"We're aware of this, Mandalore, get to the point," Admiral Bruodu spat.

"_The Sith Master is many, many times more powerful than Rengar was. I've been in his presence before. He has a new apprentice now, too. Don't know anything about her. I do happen to know the Sith Master's real name is Darth Caeer, but he often goes by the alias Senator Barbarus. He's allied with the Chiss, and if you want any hope of winning this war, you'll need our help to get rid of him."_


	6. The Treaty

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 6 – The Treaty**

"_Senator Barbarus has returned home to Corellia today, after his plea to the Senate to reclaim Adumar and Ansion fell through. Senator Barbarus was quoted as saying that he is 'disgusted and appalled by the Republic's lack of action', and that he would be returning home to 're-evaluate Corellia's priorities',"_ came the holonet newsreader's report.

"So that's his excuse? How lame," Liina replied flatly.

"It's worse than that," Devin commented. "He can sit back on Corellia and stir up as much of a fuss as he wants, and there's nothing we can do about it. And the more fuss he stirs up, the more systems will sympathise with Corellia."

"But how can one planet make so much difference?" Lenny asked.

"It's Corellia," Kayla explained. "They're one of the oldest members of the Republic , and hugely influential. But the problem isn't that Corellia may leave, it's that they'll take their armed forces with them, along with many other systems."

"So let me get this straight," Ashlyn spoke up, after spending the last few minutes absorbing everything that was said. "The Mandalorian attacks were designed to give the Chiss a clear run from Csilla to the Core, right?"

"Right," Kayla answered.

"So I'm thinking that the Chiss probably expected us to have retaliated by now, otherwise they would have just taken Adumar and Ansion themselves instead of having the Mandalorians do it for them."

"Very good," Kayla said, gesturing for the Togruta girl to continue.

"Since we never attacked the Mandalorians, the Chiss must have needed to re-evaluate their plans," Ashlyn continued. "So they get Barbarus to stir up trouble and have as many Republic systems as possible leave the Republic. Then they get rid of the Mandalorians, knowing they'd try and join the Republic, which will cause even more controversy and divide the Republic further. By the time we actually fight the Chiss, there won't be anyone left to defend."

"I'm impressed, Ashlyn. Very impressed," Kayla said with a smile. "I can't wait to start your training."

"Me neither, Master," the Togruta replied politely.

"Kayla is fine," Kayla corrected. "It's still a bit weird being called 'Master'," she laughed.

"Sorry, I didn't want to offend you or anything," Ashlyn said nervously.

"Don't worry about anything," Kayla laughed. "You're so nervous, it's sweet. But you can speak freely here, we're not all about ranks and military discipline. Just be yourself."

"Thanks Kayla," Ashlyn relaxed a little. "Actually, I was wondering, since Lenny is a little ahead of us with his training, would it be okay if maybe you were my Master?"

Kayla had to think hard about this. She hadn't actually put any thought into it at all yet, despite having known that there would be three new Padawans for a little while now. Devin hadn't mentioned anything about it either, so she assumed he also hadn't thought about it yet. It made sense though. Lenny was learning fast, and Liina could be Devin's Padawan. Lenny could still come to Devin or herself if he needed anything, or even use the two holocrons.

"What do you think, Dev? Are you happy for Liina to be your Padawan?" she asked him.

Devin looked at Liina quizzically, who just smiled giddily at him before going into full girl-mode, squealing and clapping madly.

"He's happy about it," Liina answered for him.

"I suppose that settles it then," Kayla grinned.

"Great! When do we get started?" Liina asked excitedly.

"_Jedi Talus, Jedi Rokanh,"_ came the Chancellor's voice through Devin's comlink.

"Yes, Chancellor?" Devin replied.

"_I need you to come to my office immediately. We've just received a holotransmission from a Chiss spokesman wanting to negotiate the terms of a ceasefire. Their terms have been set, but I will not make a decision on this until you have both seen them."_

"We'll be right there."

Liina frowned and crossed her arms. "That sounds a bit shifty to me. If they're _negotiating_ the ceasefire terms, then why have the Chiss' terms already been set?"

"That's a good question," Devin answered with a grin. "This should be interesting."

* * *

"Finally, the Jedi have arrived," Admiral Bruodu spat. "You're giving yourselves quite the reputation for tardiness."

"To be fair, Admiral, I only asked for them a few minutes ago," Chancellor Grennar advised, attempting to ease the Admiral's tension. The Admiral had been an outspoken critic of the Jedi ever since he had first heard of them, using every opportunity possible to discredit them in some way.

"Anyway," the Chancellor continued, "as you all know, we're here because a spokesman from the Chiss Expansionary Defence Force has contacted us. He goes by the core name Krivern, and has left us with a list of their terms for the proposed ceasefire."

"Before you continue, Chancellor," Devin interrupted, "my Padawan raised an interesting point about this. Why have the Chiss' terms already been set? There's hardly going to be a negotiation of ceasefire terms if they've already produced a list of demands."

"They are Chiss, Jedi Rokanh," came the reply from Colonel Jake Minvessen, Commander of Rogue Squadron. "They've always been that way. It's a tactic they use to intimidate the enemy into accepting unfair terms."

"That's right, Colonel," Chancellor Grennar affirmed. "They've demanded that all movement of arms or armies be terminated until a future negotiated time, along with all trade and diplomacy within disputed territories."

"It's complete garbage," Admiral Bruodu yelled. "How dare they tell us what we can and can't do in our own space."

"Settle down, Admiral," Kayla said calmly, secretly enjoying herself. "We're not the Chiss, and we're not deaf. There's no need to yell or be angry about anything yet."

"You don't even have any place here, little girl," Bruodu snapped. "You're a child who claims to have supernatural powers and a carries a colourful, decorative ornament for a weapon. You belong in a circus act, not a war council."

"Admiral, please," Senator Golan pleaded, his three-fingered Ansionian hands clasped together, "these Jedi are truly amazing. You haven't had the honour of witnessing their skills in action, so your scepticism is understood. But they have earned their place here, I assure you. We would do well to heed their advice on these matters."

"I will heed advice from those who have earned my respect. And I will not be told what is best for me by a two-bit senator from a backwater planet!" Bruodu yelled, now standing in front of his chair, his purple Bothan eyes becoming bloodshot with anger.

"Admiral, may I remind you that I am your commander-in-chief," Grennar interrupted. "You are way out of line. One more outburst like that and I can and will suspend you from duty. For as long as I like, Admiral. Behave yourself. You shouldn't need to be told."

Bruodu sat back down, seething with rage.

"Now, as I was about to ask before I was rudely interrupted, what are your thoughts on the Chiss' demands, Master Jedi?" Grennar asked, addressing both Kayla and Devin.

"Well obviously those demands are a bit rigid," Devin said, thinking about his answer. "What we do within the Republic is our own business. Whether it be movement of our forces, trade or diplomacy or even tourism, it's none of their business. Likewise, what the Chiss do in the Unknown Regions is completely their business. I couldn't care less what they're doing, as long as they agree to the ceasefire part."

"As far we're concerned, Adumar and Ansion are now lost. The Chiss are completely in control there; we aren't getting them back without a full-on invasion force," Kayla continued on from Devin. "So what we have to decide is what to do about the survivors on those planets. I think we should be asking for as many of them as we can to be moved to safe planets."

"I think that's a brilliant idea, Jedi Talus," Colonel Minvessen agreed. "I'm sure we could relocate them all to Dantooine. If we were to send a construction crew with them, they could rebuild their lives there, make a new start. It'd cost a few credits obviously, but it's the least we can do for them. Plus, it'd be great for Dantooine."

"I agree," Chancellor Grennar added. "We will ask the Chiss if we can take all the survivors from Adumar and Ansion and relocate them. Are we all agreed that movement of any type within either side's own territories should be allowed?"

A general affirmative murmur filled the room, so the Chancellor continued. "So regarding the ceasefire itself, what are we proposing should be the specific terms?"

"Any unauthorised movement within hostile territory, or firing of arms upon either side's territory, personnel or property," Admiral Bruodu said nonchalantly. "That's the usual way."

"We should word it differently," Kayla advised. "That may work against the Chiss, but it won't stop the Sith from coming and going and doing as they please."

"I've been doing this for longer than you've been alive, little 'Jedi'," Bruodu once again raged, standing up and raising his voice. "You don't get to tell me _anything ever_, understand? I don't care about your 'Sith Lords' any more than I care about you. I care about what happens if the Chiss come here and shoot all our brothers, rape all our women and put our children into slavery. _That's_ what _I_ care about."

"And what if the _Sith_ come here and _stab_ all our brothers, rape all our women and put our children into slavery? Is it only unacceptable if the Chiss do it? You're being irrational, Admiral," Kayla argued.

"Jedi Talus is right, Admiral," Grennar said, joining the argument, "The terms need to read 'any unauthorised movement within hostile territory, or firing of arms upon either side's territory, personnel or property by either the Chiss Ascendancy or Galactic Republic, or any affiliated groups. Any such acts committed will be seen as a proclamation of war.' All agreed?"

Everyone except Admiral Bruodu muttered their agreement, nodding heads and exchanging affirmative expressions.

"You're all _mad_," Bruodu yelled. "I can't believe you would take the word of a small civilian girl over that of a seasoned veteran! This war will end in tears, and it will be your fault, Chancellor."

"That's enough, Admiral," Grennar finally raised his voice. "You are relieved from duty as Commander of the Republic Forces, effective immediately, until I see fit to reinstate you. You will be banned from all duties and will have all your military rights and privileges revoked until this time. You are dismissed, Bruodu."

The Admiral stood still for a few moments, totally stunned, before walking off angrily, hammering the door activation button with his fist.

"Now," Grennar continued, "Colonel Minvessen and Jedi Talus, you will be replacing Admiral Bruodu temporarily, until more permanent measures can be made. Congratulations on your promotions, General Minvessen and General Talus."

"Thankyou, Chancellor," they both said.

"I have been instructed by the Chiss that they wish to confirm the terms of the ceasefire in private, so I will have to ask you all kindly to leave," Grennar added. "I will contact you all later to let you know of the final decisions. Jedi Rokanh and General Talus, would you stay back for a moment?"

Once the others had all left the room, Chancellor Grennar spoke again.

"The Jedi Temple excavation is going faster than we anticipated. We have fully refurbished and redecorated all the important parts like the hangar, meditation chambers, meeting rooms and training areas. The only parts we haven't done are the Room of a Thousand Fountains, the library and the tunnels and chambers beneath the temple. We have also found you some permanent accommodations close to the Temple and the Senate District, and we've put up some living quarters in the Temple itself in case you have any new recruits. It should house up to thirty people. Any more than that, and I'm sure we can arrange more places similar to yours."

"Thank you very much, Chancellor, we're very grateful for all you've done for us," Devin said, shaking Grennar's hand.

"No expense spared, my friends," Grennar said with a warm smile. "It's an honour to be the first Chancellor in thousands of years to be working with the Jedi once more. This is the least I can do for you both. The galaxy has missed you terribly."

* * *

After getting settled into their new homes, all five Jedi met up at the Temple to have a look around. When they got to the hangar, they saw that it was already populated by Devin's X-Wing, and four more spacecraft identical to Devin's X-Wing. On closer inspection, they didn't have a rear gunner's seat like Devin's had, but were in every other way identical. They even came with a droid slotted in, all similar in appearance to Devin's droid Rusty, but with different colour schemes. Suddenly Creo popped out from behind one of the X-Wings.

"Heya Dev, heya guys and girls," he said with his typical Corellian swagger, "looks like I'm workin' here from now on. Good ol' Chancellor Jaru offered me a job a little while ago. First task was to get these new X-Wings up and running. The diggin' boys found some old schematics for an XJ5 X-Wing while they were shovelin' around down there, amongst other things, so I had a look at it, made some improvements, gave 'em some modern tech, and here ya have 'em. Fastest, most manouverable craft in the galaxy, with the most potent arsenal."

"What kind of arsenal?" Lenny asked.

"Well, my young Jedi friend," Creo answered, "quad rapid-fire laser cannons with fully adjustable fire order and rate, quad rapid-fire ion cannons, also with fully adjustable fire order and rate, and a twin-payload of missiles or whatever. If you put normal concussion missiles in there, you'll fit ten a side."

Kayla and Ashlyn grinned to each other, knowing that Lenny didn't know how to fly. They both started chuckling.

"It's Lenny, isn't it?" Creo asked the tall, young Jedi. "The Chancellor's got another surprise for you, up in one of the training rooms. It's a set of X-Wing simulators, so you can all work on your flying."

Kayla and Ashlyn stopped grinning then; Lenny had turned around and given them both his smuggest possible smile.

"So you work here now Creo?" Devin asked the older Corellian.

"Technically, I work for the Republic. But I answer to you and Kayla," Creo answered.

"What about when we don't have anything to fix?" Kayla asked.

"Then I ask General Minvessen if he has anything that needs fixing," Creo said with a grin. "My main priority is the Jedi, but I'm also helping with research and development for the Republic. Thanks to you guys, I've moved up in the galaxy."

* * *

That night was a particularly beautiful one, with the Coruscant night sky shining in all its modern, technology-powered glory. Devin and Liina joined Ashlyn, Kayla and Lenny relaxing on a balcony in the Temple with some ales.

"So what do you think the Chiss are really up to, Kayla?" Ashlyn asked her Master. "I mean, they clearly have some sort of ulterior motive."

"Well, what do you think?" Kayla returned the question.

Ashlyn looked at Liina, thinking of a suitable response, but Liina just shrugged and let the Togruta girl answer for herself.

"I think they'll use the time to gather their forces for a massive assault on the Core," she answered.

"They probably would, I'd assume," Kayla agreed. "But I think they'll also use the time to gather intelligence on us and try to divide us even further."

"You mean with Barbarus?" Liina asked.

"Yeah, him," Kayla practically spat.

"We should think of a way to get him out of office," Liina proposed.

"How would we do that though?" Lenny retorted. "He's holed up on Corellia. It's his power base, we can't just go there and tell him politely to leave."

"Kayla and Devin have connections in the Corellian Military though, don't you? We could use them somehow," Ashlyn suggested.

"Good idea," Devin affirmed. "I'll speak to my old friends, Kayla can speak to hers, we'll see if they can come up with anything that may help us implicate him somehow."

"Don't forget, we still have a lot of training to do," Kayla reminded them all. "We need to be ready for anything when this ceasefire inevitably ends. Once we've done our part and contacted everyone, we really need to get searching for more Force Sensitive people to possibly join us. That means you three," Kayla directed her attention to Ashlyn, Liina and Lenny, "need to get all trained up. The Sith won't be resting, so neither should we. We're going to need numbers if we hope to help the Republic in any sort of capacity."

"That's right," Devin said with a yawn. "It's been a big day, so I think I'll be off. See you guys tomorrow."

"I might go too. I wanna be fresh for training," Liina added.

"Yeah I guess I'll go too then," Lenny turned around and walked back inside. "'Night guys."

With everyone else gone for the night, Ashlyn and Kayla were the only ones left at the Temple. Ashlyn still looked troubled though.

"You're still worried about the ceasefire, aren't you," Kayla noted.

"Yeah," Ashlyn muttered, looking out at the Coruscant skyline. "The only reason I can think of for them wanting a ceasefire is that somehow things haven't gone to plan."

"They must have expected Barbarus to have taken Corellia to the fight by now," Kayla suggested. "It would weaken the Republic's forces if Corellia and its allies went in first. The Chiss would wipe them out, then they'd have a smaller force to fight against in the Core. Plus we wouldn't have access to certain hyperspace routes."

"So what do you think they're _really_ doing now?"

"I wish I knew," Kayla sighed. "But I think Liina's right about putting pressure on Barbarus. If you're correct about the Chiss' plan not working out, then Barbarus might be the weak link."

"I don't think they were expecting Jedi when they came up with the plan."

"And that gives us the advantage."

* * *

Kayla woke the next morning to the sound of her door buzzer. Quickly putting on a robe, she used the Force to get a sense of who the person was, but could only sense nervousness and relief. Deciding that it wasn't anyone dangerous, she opened the door, revealing General Jake Minvessen.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Minvessen said, turning away from Kayla, "I didn't realise you'd still be asleep."

"It's okay," Kayla said, adjusting her robe. "Why don't you come in?"

"Thanks, but I only stopped by on my way back to my office," Minvessen held up a hand in protest. "I just wanted to tell you that the ceasefire negotiations are over. The Chiss agreed to our terms, so we have one year of stalemate until we re-negotiate."

"That's great news!"

"Yeah," Minvessen agreed. "Let's just hope they stay true to their word. Oh and by the way, the War Council will be meeting again in a week's time. We'll be in touch closer to the date."

"Thanks, Jake."

"No problem," Minvessen gave Kayla a wink. "I'll speak to you then, I guess."

And with that, the General left. Kayla went back inside and made herself a cup of caf, wondering why something felt like it wasn't quite right.

_If the war is on hold and Barbarus' apprentice is dead, then why am I feeling so uneasy about the whole thing?_

She decided to head to the Temple to meditate on it for a while.

* * *

"You called for me, Master?" Darth Vorcyl knelt before Darth Caeer.

"Yes, apprentice," Caeer said flatly. "I have a task for you."

"Anything, my Master."

"You are to sneak into the Jedi Temple and access their computer systems. I want any and all information you can retrieve about the Jedi. I want to know their history, their allies, their training, everything."

"As you wish, Master."

"Our part in this war has not gone to plan so far, apprentice," Caeer admitted. "Thanks to Rengar's little stunt on Ansion, the Jedi are gaining a reputation, inspiring hope in the people. We need to crush them, before they gain too much of a foothold."

Darth Caeer paused briefly before continuing. "Go to the Temple, steal as much information as you can, then get out, preferably without being noticed. The Jedi don't know that you exist yet, I'd prefer to keep it that way for as long as possible."

* * *

After the other Jedi said their goodbyes for the night, Lenny was left alone in the Temple and decided to stay back longer to continue training on the X-Wing simulators. He was getting better, but still lacked the ability to track targets properly. Devin had insisted to him that he learn to fly normally before attempting to use the Force to track. It was just as he was finishing up for the night when he thought he sensed something strange. Stretching out with the Force, he felt a powerful presence nearby, which almost instantly vanished. Confused, he stepped out into a corridor, but couldn't see anything.

"Hello?" he called, but got no response.

_I know I felt something._

Just as he was entering the foyer area at the entrance of the Temple, a small red-skinned Twi'lek girl ran across his path.

"Hey!" he yelled to the girl. "You're not supposed to be in here."

The girl stopped and spun around to face Lenny.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I've heard so much about the Jedi, I just wanted to have a look around."

"Well you could have asked someone's permission first," he replied, looking the pretty Twi'lek up and down. "I'm happy to show you around, if you'd like."

The girl's face lit up instantly. "That would be so great! Thank you so much!"

She ran up to Lenny and took his hand, and he led her into the heart of the temple, showing her all the interesting parts like the hangar, training rooms and Council room.

"What's your name, Jedi?" the girl asked him finally.

"Lenny Tanski, nice to meet you," he replied with a friendly smile.

"Well, Lenny," the girl said, tracing a finger down his chest, "ever done it in a Temple before?"

"Aren't you forward," Lenny blushed. "You don't muck around at all, huh."

"Not when I see something I like," she replied breathily, taking a handful of Lenny and gently squeezing.

Lenny gulped loudly.

"Let's go in here," she said, leading him into a training room, still gripping.

The girl gently squeezed again, and Lenny felt his entire body tingle. He fell to his knees gasping.

_Did she just use the Force on me?_

The girl giggled as she sat down astride him.

"Was that the Force?" he asked her.

"I don't even know what that is," she replied. "Shh…stop talking, Lenny. Just relax."

She hugged Lenny's face against her breasts, then put his hands on her ass. Again, his entire body started tingling and he was effectively paralysed. He tried asking the girl again if she was using the Force, but with his face mashed against her breasts everything he said was muffled.

"Still talking? Isn't this nice enough for you?"

She hugged his face tighter against her breasts then, suffocating him completely. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed tight, and the tingling feeling became completely overwhelming. The girl just giggled and squeezed tighter.

"I could be slitting your throat right now, and you'd just beg me for more, wouldn't you Lenny?"

Lenny wanted to agree, but the pleasure was so overwhelming that he couldn't even focus on what she was saying. All he could do was sit still as the Twi'lek girl wrapped herself ever tighter around him. It had been almost thirty seconds since his last breath. Suddenly, she unwrapped herself and knelt behind him, hugging him loosely around his neck. Lenny panted furiously, catching his breath again as the tingling feeling subsided.

"Was that nice?" she whispered in his ear, letting her lips brush softly against his skin.

"Mm-hmm," he mumbled, starting to tremble a little.

"You've never been with a Twi'lek before, have you?"

Lenny shook his head.

"We're not all this good, just me."

She moved around to his front then and put her breasts back in his face.

"You're mine now, Lenny. Got that? I own you, babe."

"Huh?" he mumbled through her breasts.

"It's nice to have a Jedi completely under your control like this. I thought you guys were meant to be really tough and powerful."

"Hang on just a sec," Lenny said, pulling away.

"Shh…I didn't say you could talk, sweetie. Lie down."

Lenny felt the tingling return stronger than ever, and he instantly collapsed onto his back and began moaning. The girl giggled again, then knelt down with her knees on either side of his neck. She leaned forwards, and Lenny knew what she was going to do next. With the tingling feeling paralysing him, all he could do was stare up at the Twi'lek girl's ass inches above his face while she performed an act on him. Once she was done, Lenny was completely drained of all energy. He just lay there on the training room floor as the girl sat back down, right on his face.

"So I have to go now, Lenny. Thanks for showing me around."

Unable to reply, he just mumbled something incoherent against the Twi'lek's ass.

"Remember," she said, spreading her legs wide to increase the pressure on his face, "I own you, Lenny."

She stood up then, bent down and kissed him on the cheek, then quickly walked off, leaving the Jedi on the floor gasping in disbelief.

* * *

"Lord Vorcyl, you've returned," Darth Caeer said as the Twi'lek walked into his chambers.

"I was successful, my Master, but at a cost."

"Oh?"

"I was discovered, just as I was leaving the Temple. One of the Jedi saw me. I dealt with him."

"There is no blood on your hands," Caeer noted, sensing her through the Force. "The treaty is not under threat, then. What happened?"

"Well, I couldn't kill him, so I seduced him instead."

"Your identity is still a secret?"

"Yes, my lord. He does not know who I am. He did detect me using the Force, though."

"Does he suspect you are a Sith?"

"No, my lord. But even if he _did_ know, I doubt he will ever attack me. In fact, as long as he is present, I doubt any of them will attack me."

"Is that so, apprentice?"

"Yes, Master. I am very good at what I do. I could have been doing anything to him, and he would just beg me for more."

"Very well," Caeer said. "Where is the information?"

Vorcyl handed him a tiny datachip.

"You have done well, apprentice. Better than I could have hoped. Now we not only have all the information on the Jedi, but we have one of them under your control."

"I could turn him to the dark side, Master," Vorcyl suggested.

"All things in good time, my apprentice," Caeer replied, shaking his head. "Would your charms work on a female Jedi?"

"They will work on females, even straight females, my lord. I'm not sure it will work on a female Jedi, but I've never tried."

"We will soon find out," Caeer said. "I want you to seduce their most powerful Jedi: General Kayla Talus. If you can do that, the Jedi will be completely at our mercy."

"Is that wise, Master?" Vorcyl questioned. "If it doesn't work, it may cause the treaty to be broken. As you said, the plan hasn't worked out the way you intended. It's too risky."

Caeer lifted Vorcyl off the ground with the Force, then hurled her across the chamber into a wall and held her in place five metres off the ground. Pinching with his fingers, Vorcyl began choking and coughing, gasping for air.

"Do not ever question me, apprentice. Is this clear?"

"Yes, Master," she gasped. "Crystal."

Caeer slammed her into the wall again with enormous force, knocking the wind right out of her, then let her fall all the way to the floor where she crumpled into a foetal position.

"Go and rest now. You can do this task tomorrow."


	7. The Temptress

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 7 – The Temptress**

Kayla went straight to the Temple the next morning, still not able to shift the uneasy feeling she had. Even after a day spent mostly meditating on that feeling, nothing had become any clearer, which troubled her greatly. She knew that if nothing was becoming clear, then the dark side was most likely clouding everything, and that was definitely not a good thing.

_With Barbarus' apprentice dead, things should have been looking better, not feeling like it may get worse at any time._

As she entered the Temple, a young Twi'lek girl approached her.

"Excuse me, are you General Talus?"

"I sure am," she replied with a friendly smile. "What can I do for you, Miss…?"

"Runice, just Runice," the girl replied, flashing an ID card. "Wow, it's such a pleasure to meet you! I was just wondering, I'm a holonet journalist, and I'd very much like to interview you, if that's okay."

"Umm, sure I guess," Kayla responded, knowing the girl was lying. "Come on inside."

The two girls made their way to a sitting area inside the Temple, where Kayla made them both a cup of caf.

"So why do you want to interview me for?" Kayla asked, taking a seat.

"Well," Runice started, looking a little uncomfortable, "I'm not actually a journalist."

"Oh?"

"I kinda made that up so I could get in here to meet you."

Kayla tried to get a sense of Runice through the Force, but beyond nervousness there was nothing unusual about her.

"Why lie to me? I'm a Jedi, I can sense these things."

"Well, why did you let me in if you knew I was lying?"  
"I wanted to know what you were really here for," Kayla explained with a smile.

Runice shifted in her seat, inching herself closer to Kayla.

"You would never believe me if I told you," Runice said, not making eye contact. "So maybe I could show you instead."

Runice turned slowly, looking up at Kayla with beautiful, big green eyes, inching her face closer and closer to Kayla's. Kayla found herself moving closer as well, but as soon as she realised she was doing it, she stopped.

"Sorry Runice, but I don't swing that way," Kayla said as she moved slightly away from the Twi'lek.

"You don't? Oh dear. I'm so sorry," Runice said, blushing madly. "This is so awkward now. I should never have come here. I'm so sorry."

The Twi'lek got up to leave, but Kayla grabbed the girl's arm.

"Stay here just a moment," Kayla said. "At least finish your caf?"

"Okay. Thanks, Jedi Talus." Runice sat back down next to Kayla. "You know, you're a lot sweeter than I thought you'd be."

"You were expecting me to be rude?" Kayla asked.

"No, not at all," Runice blushed nervously. "I just wasn't expecting someone so nice. And pretty, too."

"You're not so bad yourself, Runice. A little nervous, but you're very pretty."

"See? That's what I'm talking about. You're such a nice girl."

Runice leaned close to Kayla again, her hand brushing Kayla's thigh. When Kayla didn't object, Runice took Kayla's hand and stroked it gently. She looked up at Kayla again, their faces almost touching now. Runice's left hand reached up and softly cupped Kayla's cheek. Before she realised it, Kayla and Runice were kissing.

"I thought you didn't swing this way," the Twi'lek teased.

"I don't."

"Then I guess I'll need to take control."

Runice swivelled, lifting her left leg across Kayla's lap so that she was straddling her, then leaned forwards so her breasts were pressing against her face. Kayla's body began to tingle all over. It was pleasure like she'd never experienced before, and it was so strong she couldn't move at all.

_This isn't right. This can't be natural, she's using the Force on me for sure._

Kayla brought her hands up to try and push Runice away, but the tingling feeling intensified so much that she could only moan uncontrollably.

"Nice, isn't it General?" Runice said, hugging Kayla's face tighter against her breasts.

Kayla couldn't breathe at all now, but she didn't care. The pleasure was so intense she didn't care if she died right then and there, with the female Twi'lek tightly wrapped around her.

Runice then grabbed Kayla's waist, forced her as high as she could between her thighs and squeezed tightly. Kayla's moaning became constant and very loud, the tingling intensifying the tighter Runice squeezed. Suddenly she stopped, unwrapping herself from Kayla. As the tingling feeling died down, Runice laid Kayla flat on the sofa and sat on her neck, the Twi'lek's ass pressing against Kayla's chin. The tingling returned, almost completely paralysing her, and Kayla knew something was wrong. She could sense a faint darkness coming from Runice.

_This is it, the uneasiness. It's coming from this girl._

Kayla tried to gather the Force to lift Runice off her, but the tingling increased to overwhelming levels, and she found she couldn't concentrate enough. She tried again, but Runice shifted, planting her ass right on Kayla's face with her full weight. Kayla started panicking then, her lack of oxygen combined with the tingling feeling made it impossible to do anything but stare up at Runice's ass. The feelings she was experiencing were unbelievably nice, and the longer she went without breath, the more intense the tingling got, and the more vigorous Runice's touching became, the harder it was for her to even remember what was happening. Just as she was about to explode, Runice let her guard down and she was able to summon a surge of Force energy, lifting the Twi'lek off of her and into the air. Immediately, the tingling subsided and Kayla gulped air down furiously. The Twi'lek broke Kayla's Force hold, and Kayla knew instantly that this girl was not all she seemed.

"What's wrong? You seemed to be enjoying it?" Runice asked.

"No more games, Runice. Who are you?"

"What? I came here, showed you intensity like you've never felt before, and this is how you thank me?"

Kayla scoffed. "So if I was to, say, attack you, you would have no hope of defending yourself."

"Oh no! Why would you want to attack me? I thought we could be friends. You know, real close friends."

Kayla grinned, lighting her sky-blue lightsaber and slashing down at Runice with great speed. A dark purple blade appeared and blocked the slash, the two lightsabers hissing noisily.

"I knew it," Kayla said, pushing back to give herself some room.

"We could have been really great, you and I," Runice replied. "Now look what you've made me do."

Runice charged at Kayla, slashing upwards, but Kayla blocked it easily. Runice growled angrily, unleashing a barrage of quick slashes in all directions, which Kayla again blocked with ease. Frustrated, Runice Force-pushed Kayla across the room. The human girl landed deftly on her feet, not affected in the slightest. Runice's expression turned fierce, and she lit the other end of her lightsaber. Unleashing another flurry of blows, Kayla had to really work hard to block the saberstaff with her single blue saber. Deciding enough was enough, she dropped into Shii-Cho form suddenly, surprising the young Twi'lek. In a split second, Kayla had disarmed Runice, her saberstaff sent flying across the room.

"Game over," Kayla announced. "Now tell me who you are."

"It's not over until _I_ _say_ it's over."

Runice used the Force to pull Kayla's lightsaber out of her hands, and leaped over to her, slashing downwards with all her strength. Kayla had her purple lightsaber still attached to her belt, but decided it was important to teach the Twi'lek a lesson, so she didn't ignite it. Instead, she stayed Runice's hand with the Force, and sent a pulse of energy through the girl's arm that caused her grip to loosen. The blue saber dropped harmlessly into her hands, and she reattached it to her belt.

"Tell me. Now."

"No way, Jedi. I'm never telling you anything. I'd sooner _die_."

As she spoke the last word, Runice used the Force to grab Kayla's neck and lift her off the ground, choking the girl mercilessly. Kayla tried resisting, but the Twi'lek's ability with the Force was a lot more impressive than her skill with a blade. Runice walked Kayla over to a wall and slammed her into it painfully. Kayla struggled, but couldn't do anything. Runice was more powerful than her, and she was losing energy the more she tried to escape. She felt herself being lifted higher off the ground, her waist roughly at Runice's head-height. Runice stroked Kayla's midriff, then kissed it gently.

"I didn't think this was going to happen," Runice said, still choking Kayla. "My Master assured me that I could never beat you in a fight."

Runice kept lightly kissing Kayla's belly as she strangled her with the Force.

"You _can't_ beat me," Kayla squeaked, remembering her first fight with Darth Rengar.

"You're such a cutie, Talus. It's a shame to have to choke you to death. I really genuinely liked you."

Kayla grinned as Runice continued to make out with her belly. She slammed her knees into Runice's chest, knocking the Twi'lek back a few feet. Then, gathering as much Force power as she could, sent a jolt of electricity from both hands straight at Runice, sending her flying across the room

"Tell me who you are, _now_," Kayla demanded, hands outstretched, ready to release another blast of lightning.

"No," the Twi'lek said defiantly through forcibly gritted teeth.

"Okay then," Kayla replied, then blasted her again.

The Twi'lek screamed in pain, spasming on the floor.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

Lenny appeared in the doorway, lightsaber in hand.

"Stop it! You're going to kill her!" he screamed.

Kayla stopped momentarily, then looked at the grinning Twi'lek, and blasted her again.

"Master Talus, please stop! She's not what you think!"

"She's dangerous, Lenny. She seduced me, and then she tried to kill me."  
"But she wouldn't do that! She's nice! Kayla, let her go! I don't want to hurt you."

"Lenny, stay out of this, you don't know what she's capable of."

Kayla's concentration had lapsed while talking to Lenny, and Runice used the distraction to Force-push Kayla back against a wall.

"You see? She used the Force. Put two and two together, Lenny."

In an instant, Runice charged across the room straight at him. Lenny put up his hands in defence, but Runice darted behind him, leapt into the air and put one arm around his neck in a choke hold. Being quite a lot shorter than Lenny, she was forced to lean him backwards in order to keep her arm around his neck at standing-height.

"Hiya Lenny, remember me?"

Runice put her other hand on his crotch and squeezed gently, and Lenny was completely overwhelmed by the tingling feeling again. Falling to his knees and then crumpling, Lenny lay on the ground and moaned uncontrollably.

"Until next time, General Talus," Runice grinned slyly as she leapt off of a nearby balcony, summoning her purple saberstaff with the Force as she fell.

Kayla ran to the edge of the balcony and looked down, but couldn't see the Twi'lek anywhere.

"Damn!" she yelled, pounding the balcony fence with her fist.

Lenny was still moaning on the ground, totally unable to move at all.

* * *

The other Jedi arrived minutes later, having sensed something was wrong through the Force.

"So you found her snooping around last night?" Kayla asked Lenny.

"Yeah, I was just leaving and she ran in front of me. Showed me a great time. I just thought she was a little crazy. I guess I should have known better than to think there was nothing up when a hot Twi'lek girl suddenly appears in the Jedi Temple and wants to do it with you in a training room."

"You didn't though, did you?" Liina asked.  
"No, of course not," Lenny said, red-faced. "She went down on me though."

"Oh," Liina replied. "You're easy, aren't you?"

"Don't get the wrong idea," Lenny defended himself, "there wasn't much I could really do about it. And besides, Kayla almost fell into the same trap, and she doesn't even go for girls."

"It's true, Liina," Kayla admitted. "She was using the Force. I can't explain it exactly, but when she touches you in a certain way, you just tingle all over and you can't do anything at all. You just want to stay in that moment for the rest of time. It's actually really creepy."

"I wish I could do that," Ashlyn said quietly.

"Me too. It was pretty intense," Kayla added.

"So anyway," Devin interrupted, "this 'Runice' girl. She's broken into the Temple twice now, almost killed Kayla and turned Lenny into a blubbering mess. And I just checked security, too. She copied everything about us onto a datachip. She came here to gather intelligence on us, and must have improvised when she was stopped by Lenny."

"So why did she come back for Kayla?" Ashlyn asked. "It seems a bit…confident."

"She already had Lenny in the bag, I'm guessing she wanted Kayla wrapped around her finger as well," Devin said. "There's only five Jedi in the whole galaxy. If you can have two of them completely under your control, including one who is also leader of the entire Republic fleet, why wouldn't you?"

"I think she's a Sith," Liina said flatly.

"So do I," Kayla agreed. "She's far too skilled at using the Force to be anything but a Sith Lord. She almost killed me. Plus, she mentioned she had a Master."

"But isn't it a bit soon for Barbarus to have a new apprentice? Rengar's only been dead for a few days," Lenny noted.

"That doesn't mean anything," Devin replied. "All we know about the Sith is that there are only ever two. Kyle didn't give us a time-frame for new apprentices."

"One thing is for certain, though," Kayla added. "Runice is extremely powerful, and very dangerous. She's not likely to make mistakes like Rengar did. I'm guessing she came here at Barbarus' request, not her own."

"Plus, she was clever enough to sneak into the Temple twice in two days. We should be very careful," Liina said.

"I don't think she'll be a problem though, Liina," Ashlyn advised. "Remember the treaty? If either side or their allies attack anything, it's a declaration of war. If she _is_ a Sith, she can't afford to be caught out."

"Ashlyn's right, she won't be back any time soon," Kayla agreed. "But now that we know what we're up against, we should really get to work."

* * *

"You've failed, apprentice."

"With all due respect, Master, she killed Rengar easily. What chance did I really have?"

"You weren't supposed to _fight_ her, you were supposed to_ seduce_ her," Darth Caeer scolded.

"I tried to, Master. I almost succeeded, but she figured it out. She almost killed me."

"You were lucky to make it out alive. This is why I said not to fight her."

"I didn't fight her by choice, she attacked me!"

Caeer sensed Vorcyl with the Force, and saw that she wasn't lying.

"Perhaps now you understand what we are up against, apprentice."

"Yes, Master. Tanski is a pushover, I can handle him just fine. But Talus is very powerful. We will need to stop her if our plan is to succeed."

"Yes, eventually we will. But with the treaty in place, and the Jedi aware of your existence, now is not the time. Talus could easily kill you. You aren't ready."

"What would you have me do, Master?"

"Your presence has been requested in Csilla. You are to report to the CEDF, where we will be receiving our new instructions. Once you have them, report back to me via holo. Now go."

"Yes, Master. I'll leave immediately."

Darth Vorcyl made her way to her shuttle and set a course for the Unknown Regions, ensuring that both her ship's cloaking device and the various transponder codes she used were all working.

* * *

"Kayla, can I ask you something?"

Lenny had been troubled all day by the confrontation with Runice. He hadn't eaten or trained at all. Kayla had even offered to buy him lunch, but he just sat in one of the meditation chambers all day, totally silently. He had come out in the late afternoon to one of the training rooms where Kayla and Ashlyn were sparring with their lightsabers.

"Of course, Lenny. What's up?"

"That lightning thing you did. I thought that was a dark side ability."

"No Force power is inherently good or evil, it's how you use them," Kayla replied, quoting Kyle Katarn.

"But you were attacking her with it. That's dark side."

"She was about to choke me to death," Kayla sighed.

"You're crazy about her, aren't you?" Ashlyn frowned.

"What?! No way. She's a Sith Lord!" Lenny retorted defensively.

"Then why are you so concerned for her safety? She almost killed your Master, she broke into the Temple – twice – she stole vital information on us and what we're doing, while fooling you completely, I might add, and you're worried about _Runice_?"

Lenny paused, thinking deeply about this.

"There's just something about her…"

"Lenny," Kayla said, walking over to the young man and putting her hands on his shoulders, "she's a Sith Lord. She used you to steal data on the Jedi. She almost killed me, and now she's got you thinking you're in love with her. Clear your mind, and you'll see what's really going on here. The dark side clouds your judgment."

"I'm not in love with her. I've only met her once," Lenny argued. "The dark side isn't clouding anything."

"Think about what you're saying. Focus on your feelings, see them for what they really are. She could use you to her own ends, just by making you tingle. It's a bad thing, Lenny."

"Hmm, maybe you're right. I mean, she did come after you too."

"Of course she's right!" Ashlyn said, arms crossed. "Now are you going to play with us or not?"

Lenny allowed himself a smile, then tuned his saberstaff down for sparring.

"Alright, let's see what you've both got then," Kayla taunted.

* * *

Darth Vorcyl had crossed successfully through blockades at the edge of Republic space, using her shuttle's cloaking device to slip through the lines. As she arrived on Csilla, she was greeted by several Chiss who walked her to the CEDF headquarters.

"Ah, Darth Vorcyl, how nice of you to join me," Krivern waved the Twi'lek inside. "We have new instructions for your Master."

"And what would those be?"

"We need him to turn the tide of this war in our favour. That is his job. He has been stationed on Corellia for far too long without results. We have one standard galactic year before the treaty expires and we need to renegotiate with the Republic. He has six months to secede from the Republic and take at least one quarter of the Republic fleet with him, or he will be replaced. A lot of faith has been put in Caeer, and I expect him to produce results. The Republic needs to be as damaged as it can possibly be before we initiate the last phase of our plan."

"I shall inform him, Master," Vorcyl bowed.

"See that you do," Krivern scolded. "I will not tolerate Caeer's failure any longer."

"Of course, Master," Vorcyl approached Krivern and put her arms around his neck, then kissed him passionately. "I will not fail you."

"Your master's reports indicate that there are Jedi in the Republic. Is this true?"

"Yes, Master. There are five, three of which are still Padawans."

"Can they be controlled?"

"Two are very powerful, they will need to be killed. The other three I'm fairly certain can either be controlled or turned."

"You're a good girl, Runice. If your pathetic master fails again, I will see to it that you are the one to replace him. In fact," Krivern thought to himself before continuing, "If in six months' time he hasn't achieved anything, you have my permission to kill Caeer and find a suitable replacement. Come with me, we have some catching up to do."

Krivern lifted Vorcyl, who wrapped herself tightly around him, and together they walked off to his private rooms.


	8. The Council

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 8 – The Council**

It had been a full six months since the ceasefire treaty had been signed between the Chiss Ascendancy and the Republic. Senator Barbarus had not been able to summon the support he so desperately needed even from his own planet of Corellia, let alone the rest of the galaxy. In fact, things had gone so far in the wrong direction for Barbarus that he was very much in danger of being legitimately removed from office. He had become unpopular, and seen as a warmonger by the vast majority of people. Even his apprentice, Darth Vorcyl, had distanced herself from him somewhat. Things were looking up for the Republic.

Since his confrontation with Vorcyl, Lenny had met a young human boy twelve years of age whilst on a diplomatic mission to Taris accompanying Senator Golan; his first official mission after being promoted to full Jedi Knight status. The boy was strong in the Force, and Lenny had instantly recognised his talents when he foiled an assassin's attempt to take Golan's life. Using the Force, the boy had wrenched the blaster rifle from the assassin's hands, allowing Lenny to apprehend him. Being an orphan, the boy – whose name was Byz Akkon – was keen to travel to Coruscant and learn the ways of the Jedi, happily becoming Lenny's apprentice. He was a tall lad, around five-feet-eight-inches, but slight of build, unlike his master, and had sandy blonde hair parted in the middle, reaching past his earlobes.

Liina and Ashlyn had also both been promoted, but had yet to find anyone who was Force Sensitive to be their Padawans. Both were spending most of their time with their former masters – Devin and Kayla – helping resolve disputes and uprising on various planets, mostly to do with the Chiss War. The Jedi had made quite an impact in the short time they had been active. Their presence was being requested more and more by governments all over the galaxy, everywhere from Naboo to Bothawui and even all the way out to places like Bakura in Wild Space.

This time Liina and Devin were on Corellia, at the behest of Chancellor Grennar. He had told them that by creating a presence on Corellia – especially since Devin and Kayla were both Corellian – the Corellian people would be more receptive to the Republic, and be more likely to vote Barbarus out of office. As they landed on Corellia, Liina had begun to ask questions.

"So how come you never went back to Corellia after the old border dispute?"

"It's a long story," Devin sighed. "Basically, Creo and I had started a new life on Coruscant, and we didn't want to have to go and pack everything up again, and start fresh on another planet, even if it _was_ Corellia."

"But aren't Corellians all patriotic and proud? I wouldn't have thought a Corellian would choose to live anywhere but Corellia."

"That's not exactly true," Devin explained. "Corellians are proud of being Corellian, but the place itself, that's a different story."

"I think I understand," Liina nodded. "So we're supposed to meet with the holonet crews outside the CorSec building in Coronet?"

"Yeah, just like the Chancellor said. Go there, say hi to important people, tell everyone the Republic is safe and the war is still on hold, have some Corellian Brandy and then get the hell out."

"Sounds like a job for a Jedi, alright," Liina grinned.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Taris again, Lenny and Byz were busy attending to ground-side rioting over a Chiss ship which was in orbit above the planet, awaiting a diplomatic meeting with Senator Golan. According to Golan, they would be further discussing the possibility of getting more survivors from Ansion and Adumar and transporting them to Dantooine for resettlement. The rioters were livid that a Chiss ship was in orbit above their planet, and violently picketed against it. Lenny and Byz had been despatched by Kayla to quell the rioting and ensure that the meeting between the Chiss and Senator Golan went peacefully. Byz was with the Senator, while Lenny stayed ground-side.

"Byz, come in."

"_Yes, Master?"_

"How is everything so far?"

"_Nothing to report yet. Everything's nice and quiet up here."_

"Have you boarded the Chiss shuttle yet?"

"_Yes Master, both the Senator and myself are with the Chiss diplomats now."_

"Excellent. Comm me again when it's over."

Another ten minutes passed without word from Byz, while the rioting became wilder and wilder. Several times, Lenny had to use the Force to hold the line, pushing several rioters back while assuring them that he was only trying to keep the peace. A police captain approached Lenny as he was holding one particular group of rioters back.

"Jedi Tanski, how's everything going over this side?"

"Oh it's fine, just fine, buddy. Having a blast. How come the Tarisians are so upset though? I don't get it. It's just a shuttle."

"Taris has a bit of a strange history," the police captain advised him. "We've been blown up by the Sith before, then the planet was uninhabited for thousands of years, then we got taken over by a warlord, then the Empire, then we joined the New Republic, then the Yuuzhan Vong took the planet, then the New Republic took it back. We have a long history of orbiting ships being harbingers of doom."

"I didn't know that," Lenny admitted. "I suppose this is fair enough then."

"You can say that again," the captain smiled. "At least it's not boring. Anyway, let me know if you need anything, Jedi."

The Captain walked off back to his post just as Byz commed Lenny back.

"_Master, we're done here. The Chiss have agreed to allow us to transport another hundred thousand refugees."_

"That's excellent news, Byz. Grab the Senator and come back down to the surface. We'll leave as soon as we can."  
_"Yes, Master. I'll be there shortly."_

Just as Byz was signing off, a ship took off from Taris' surface.

"Wait a moment, Byz. There's a ship heading straight for you. See if you can ID it on the shuttle's scanners."

After a few moments Byz replied.

"_It's a private ship, an armed freighter. It's powering up its hyperdrive system and gaining speed. Master, I'm going to have to leave you for the moment, everyone's panicking up here."_

A few moments later, something exploded in a shower of light and burning debris.

"Byz! What the hell is going on up there?"

No response.

"Byz! Come in!"

Still no response.

Suddenly his comlink began hissing with static as someone tried to get through.

"_Ma…th…Ma…Tanski…"_

"Byz? Are you there?" Lenny called frantically.

"_Sorry about that, Master. The explosion caused our comms to go fuzzy for a moment."_

"What's happening up there?"

"_You won't believe this, Master. The Chiss have fired on the freighter. No survivors. They claim it was in self-defence, but they fired first. I saw it."_

Lenny heard Byz activate his lightsaber and deflect a few blaster bolts.

"_Sorry Master, they're shooting at the Senator and I. I'm gonna have to go. We'll meet you on the surface in a few moments."_

Frowning to himself, Lenny watched as the shuttle descended, landing just past the group of rioters. The police captain came rushing back over to Lenny then, his face bright red from exhaustion.

"What was that?" he asked.

"It was the end of the ceasefire, captain."

* * *

Darth Vorcyl entered Barbarus' office and bowed before her master.

"Why are you here, apprentice? I didn't call for you."

"I have news from the Ascendancy, Master."

"Is that so?" Darth Caeer asked, sensing something was amiss.

"Yes, Master."

Vorcyl approached Darth Caeer's large wroshyr wood desk.

"So tell me what the news is, apprentice."

Vorcyl strutted slowly around the huge desk to where Darth Caeer sat before coming to a halt right next to him.

"I'm afraid the news isn't good, Master. Not good for you, anyway."

* * *

As Liina and Devin ascended the steps at the base of the CorSec building, the holonet crews came thick and fast, firing off questions faster than either could interpret. Devin stood next to a CorSec spokesman, who was about to begin his address when Devin felt a disturbance in the Force.

"Did you feel that, Master?" Liina asked.

"I sure did. Something's happening near Barbarus' office."

"We have to go," Liina told the spokesman. "Can you get us there?"

"One moment, Jedi Hriyek."

The CorSec spokesman activated his comlink and called for a speeder, which Devin and Liina boarded immediately. They set off for Barbarus' office in the centre of Coronet, which took only a few minutes. As they reached Barbarus' office, accompanied by a full CorSec squad, Liina entered first, followed by Devin, then the CorSec officers.

"Ah, the Jedi have arrived," Barbarus announced. "Please, do come in. Jedi Hriyek, Jedi Rokanh, I'd like you to meet my assistant, Runice."

"We're familiar with Runice, Lord Caeer," Liina said flatly.

"I see you are also familiar with my alter-ego. I suppose it was only a matter of time."

"You made too many mistakes, Barbarus," Devin replied. "On behalf of the Senate of the Galactic Republic, you are under arrest, Senator."

"I don't think you quite know who you are dealing with, Jedi. If you think two Jedi and some policemen are enough to stop the two of us, you're sadly mistaken."

"They'll only be stopping one of us, Master."

"Apprentice?" Darth Caeer swivelled in his chair to face Vorcyl.

Vorcyl spun the chair back around and hid behind it, just as Darth Caeer started moaning loudly and writhing around. Liina and Devin knew exactly what was going on.

"Quick!" Liina yelled. "She's going to kill him!"

"I can't get a clear shot," the CorSec squad leader, Major Bracken, told her.

Liina grunted in frustration, then darted straight at the two Sith, but was knocked back by a powerful Force-push from Vorcyl that knocked over everyone in the room.

"Goodbye, Master. I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am," Vorcyl said.

Darth Caeer just moaned continuously, seemingly unable to move.

"What's he doing?" the Major asked the two Jedi. "What's wrong with him?"

Devin was trying desperately to approach the two Sith, but Vorcyl was much stronger than before, easily able to hold everyone back with the Force while simultaneously keeping her master completely under her control.

Darth Caeer's body began to shake uncontrollably and the moaning got louder, before suddenly stopping completely. Caeer appeared to have passed out. Devin and Liina stood back with their mouths wide open, unable to believe how powerful Vorcyl had become in only six months. The new Sith Master simply smiled suggestively at Devin before plunging one end of her purple saberstaff through Caeer's face, killing him instantly.

"That's unbelievable," Liina exclaimed. "She just killed her own master like it was nothing."

"And now it's your turn, pretty Twi'lek," Vorcyl said with another suggestive smile, strutting sultrily over to Liina.

Devin tried grabbing her with the Force and pushing her back, but she simply shrugged it aside and kept advancing. The CorSec officers started firing at her, but the bolts seemed to go straight through. Liina began to back away from Vorcyl, but soon found that her body was tingling all over. It felt very nice – too nice. Soon she was unable to move at all, and her legs collapsed out from under her. She rolled onto her back involuntarily and started moaning like Darth Caeer had moments earlier, while Vorcyl giggled happily at her.

"Liina!" Devin screamed, charging over to her as fast as he could.

Liina had managed to recover by herself though, and slammed Vorcyl into the ceiling with all the power she could muster. Pinning the red-skinned Twi'lek to the roof, she got up and drew her pale-green saberstaff, ready to defend herself.

"Bye-bye, pretty Twi'lek," Vorcyl said, still grinning.

All of a sudden the entire roof began to cave in, showering the room in white dust and debris. Devin reached out with the Force and detected Vorcyl's presence far away, too far to bother with pursuit.

"She got away, Master," Liina said, helping him up.

"Major, get this cleaned up and advise the holonet crews to prepare for an official announcement in five minutes. I'll handle it myself," Devin instructed.

* * *

"Jedi Rokanh, what does Senator Barbarus' assassination mean for Corellia?"

"At this stage, we're still trying to piece everything together," Devin answered the journalist's question. "Corellia's Head of State and Prime Minister will take on the Senator's duties for the time being until a replacement can be appointed."

"Who was responsible for the attack?" asked another journalist.

"The assassin was a Sith Lord named Darth Vorcyl. In truth, the Senator himself was actually a Sith Lord named Darth Caeer, Vorcyl was his apprentice."

"Jedi Rokanh, what exactly is a 'Sith Lord'?" asked another.

"Essentially, a Sith is the polar opposite of a Jedi. It's much more complicated than that, but that is the nuts and bolts of it."

"Has Darth Vorcyl been apprehended?"

"No, unfortunately she has escaped. Nobody on Corellia is in any danger, though. Darth Vorcyl is no immediate threat. I would expect Corellian life to return to normal very soon."

Major Bracken took over the answering then, informing everyone that the Jedi were very busy and didn't have time to answer all questions.

Liina and Devin returned to their shuttle, where its comms were buzzing away madly, awaiting a reply.

"_Master Rokanh, Master Hriyek, this is Padawan Akkon. Please respond. I repeat, Master Rokanh, Master Hriyek, is anyone there?"_

"Byz, it's Liina, we're here. How did the meeting go?"

"_Master Hriyek!"_ Byz responded, sounding desperate. _"You've got to return to Coruscant right away."_

"I'm guessing it didn't go well then," Liina replied.

"_That's an understatement, Master. The Chiss shot down a private freighter, then attacked me and Senator Golan."_

"Oh dear…" Liina said softly, shaking her head. "Kayla's not going to like this. Who attacked first?"

"_The Chiss did."_

"I knew you were going to say that. Listen Byz, Senator Barbarus has been killed by Vorcyl."

"_Really? Oh wow…I wasn't expecting that. I'll let Master Tanski know. See you back on Coruscant."_

* * *

Upon arriving, all Jedi were asked to report to the War Council room. Kayla and Ashlyn were the first to arrive, having been on Coruscant the entire time, followed by Devin and Liina, then Lenny and Byz.

"Thank you all for arriving on such short notice," Chancellor Grennar greeted the Council. "Obviously you are all aware of Senator Barbarus' assassination and the treaty being broken by the Chiss."

When all council attendees nodded and murmured their affirmations, Grennar continued.

"The Chiss have declared war, stating that they were attacked first. Padawan Akkon, you were present with Senator Golan when this all took place. Can you tell the Council what really happened?"

"Of course, Chancellor," Byz replied politely. "The discussions had gone very well, Senator Golan had gotten the Chiss to agree to let another hundred thousand refugees out of Ansion and Adumar. Just as I was informing Master Tanski of our success, a ship launched from Taris' surface and started charging up its hyperdrive. The Chiss panicked, thinking it was a trap, and fired on it, killing everyone on board. Then they started shooting at the Senator and I, and we were forced to make our escape back to Taris."

"So the ship did nothing to suggest it was about to attack?" Grennar asked.

"No, Chancellor, it was just a private freighter going about its business."

"Thankyou, Padawan Akkon. You may sit down."

Byz sat back down, brushing his hair back in relief. He'd never addressed anyone as important as the Chancellor before, and was understandably nervous about it.

"Chancellor, if I may?" General Minvessen asked, to which Chancellor Grennar nodded. The General then stood up and addressed the Council.

"As it is too early to predict the next attack by the Chiss, I propose that we gather our forces in strategic places, in preparation for a Chiss attack."

"The Mandalorians will guard the Corellian Run between Bilbringi and Ansion. We have Interdictor Cruisers which can rip the Chiss from hyperspace," Mandalore advised in his thick Mandalorian accent, filtered by his helmet which he never removed, in typical tradition for the leader of the Mandalorians.

"Very well, the Mandalorians will guard the Corellian Run," Minvessen agreed. "I have another proposition, too," he turned his attention to Kayla.

"I know what you're about to say, General," Chancellor Grennar interrupted him. "I'll propose it for you. General Talus, we need the Jedi's help. Due to the very small number of Jedi Knights available, we can't afford to keep you in your current position. General Minvessen will be promoted to Admiral, and will be placed in command of the entire Republic Armed Forces. With your permission, I'd like to ask the Jedi to lead our troops, where necessary, as Jedi Generals."

"We'll be the judge of that, Chancellor," Kayla said abruptly.

"Jedi Talus, I hate to do this to you," Grennar said, appearing not in the least bit remorseful. "Our agreement stated that the _Jedi Council_ would decide if a military situation called for Jedi intervention. But there is no Jedi Council, only the War Council."

"Nowhere in our agreement does it mention what would happen should a situation arise without the presence of the Council," she retorted, arms crossed but expression blank.

Grennar sighed loudly. "Very well, you leave me no choice. If you do not comply, I will be forced to cancel on our agreement with the Jedi."

Devin and the rest of the Jedi's eyes went wide, and their jaws dropped.

"Chancellor," Mandalore interrupted, "that's called blackmail, where I come from. The Jedi are warriors, well known to the Mandalorians. If they believe a situation requires their intervention, then they will intervene."

"And if they refuse to fight at all? Do I just let the Republic burn, Mandalore?" Grennar argued.

"We will not refuse to fight 'at all', Chancellor. We just don't want to be pawns in this game. The Chiss are a very real threat, but the Sith are much worse. If you want us to challenge them effectively, we can't have our minds too affected by war. We need to be able to think clearly, and we can't do that if you're sending us all over the galaxy to help the troops shoot people better."

"Besides, now you have Mandalorians for that," Mandalore said proudly.

Grennar grunted angrily, but conceded defeat. "Very well, Jedi Talus. We will do it your way. Ranks will be awarded based on position in the Jedi Order. Jedi Masters will be High Generals, Jedi Knights will be Generals, and Padawans will be Commanders. I suggest you get your numbers up quickly and create a new Jedi Council, Miss Talus, for the benefit of everybody here. We can't do this without your assistance."

After the meeting of the War Council concluded, Mandalore pulled Kayla aside.

"I know what he's doing, Jedi Talus," he said quietly to her as they walked down the corridor leading out of the Senate Building. "He's trying to rope you all in so his Republic Army will be full of Jedi. The strongest army in the galaxy."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

"I have a suggestion for you, Talus. We've found a few Force Sensitive Mandalorian children lately, three so far, but there may be more. We would like them to be a part of your Jedi Order."

"That would be wonderful, Mandalore," Kayla smiled at him, undeterred by his helmeted face.

"That's not all," he continued. "I think we should have our own training, separate from the Republic."

"What are you proposing?"

"If you teach us to fight the Sith, we'll help you find more Force Sensitive children."

Kayla thought about it for a moment, but then decided it was a brilliant idea.

"Deal," she agreed, shaking Mandalore's gauntleted hand. "The Mandalorians will be almost unstoppable by the time we're through with their training."

"My ancient ancestor, also Mandalore, was a great friend to the Jedi," Mandalore stated proudly, "as _I_ had always hoped to be. May this be the start of a long and prosperous friendship between the greatest warriors in the galaxy."

"It will be, Mandalore. We can stop this war, together."

"Please, Kayla, call me Raelus," Mandalore said, removing his helmet once everybody else had left. Kayla's eyes went wide; she knew how much of an honour it was to see Mandalore's real face.

"Raelus Ordo. I'll be in contact in the near future."

* * *

The Jedi all met in the Council chambers in the southwest tower of the Jedi Temple. There were only six seats instead of the usual ten, which was appropriate being that there were only six Jedi. Kayla took the seat which once belonged to the great Mace Windu, while Devin took the seat which was traditionally reserved for the Grand Master. A position which had been occupied by the greatest in the Order; the likes of Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Satele Shan and Fae Coven.

"I think we ought to talk about what the Chancellor said in the War Council meeting," Devin announced.

"What, about him reneging on our deal?" Liina asked, slightly annoyed even thinking about it.

"No," Devin replied. "We should give the Jedi Order a bit of structure. I know we're only very few in number, but if we hope to attract new Jedi and create a proper presence in the Republic, we're going to need Jedi Masters first. Once our numbers have built up a bit, then we'll think about creating a new Jedi Council."  
"I agree," Lenny nodded. "I think we should start by making Kayla a Jedi Master."

"I was about to say that," Devin smiled.

"What about you?" Kayla interjected. "You're the one who found the first holocron."

"Yes, but you've become stronger and wiser than all of us," Devin noted. "You're the one who's been showing the leadership and strength that the Jedi Order symbolises. I'm not ready yet."

"Well I think we should at least ask the gatekeepers," Kayla said. "They were made by the old Jedi Masters. I think they should have the final say."

"But they also said we shouldn't keep consulting them. We have to be more autonomous," Ashlyn disagreed.

"I'm not going to just give myself a title like that. It's far too important to mess up."

"Kayla's right," Byz said suddenly, sitting in the seat once occupied by the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi. "I may only be a Padawan, but we can't make a decision like this with only six Jedi. Any mistakes we make now might hurt us later on."

A short silence engulfed the Council chamber, before Devin produced the two holocrons. Kayla then joined him in activating them, and the warming sights of Kyle Katarn and Jaina Solo appeared before them all.

"Well, this is a familiar sight," Kyle said with a smile. "Good to see the old Council chamber back in its former glory. I think I'll take my old seat, the one Shaak Ti used to have."

Kyle and Jaina took their respective places, holographic chairs appearing between Byz and Liina on one side, and between Devin and Ashlyn on the other.

"So, the time has come, has it?" Jaina asked.

"Yes, Master," Devin answered. "The Chancellor thinks we should create a new Council soon, so we've decided we need a new Jedi Master."

"I think Kayla would make a terrific Jedi Master. She's shown herself to be a strong and capable Jedi Knight, and a great leader," Jaina agreed, not requiring any briefing.

"Stop blocking your thoughts, Devin," Kyle said suddenly. "These holocrons are very powerful. They were made with the Force by the most powerful Masters of the old Order. We know what you're thinking, and you're wrong."

"Master Katarn is correct," Jaina addressed Devin. "Kayla is not the only one who has shown great leadership and wisdom. On behalf of the great Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker and the entire Jedi Order both old and new, I now pronounce you both as Jedi Masters. Congratulations."

Devin and Kayla grinned at each other, relishing in the honour they were receiving.

"Thank you, Masters," Kayla bowed her head. "It's truly a great honour for us to know that the Old Jedi Order have deemed us worthy of this."

"And now we have to address the issue of a Jedi Council," Kyle started. "The Chancellor is right. You _do_ need a new Council. The fact that there are only six Jedi is irrelevant."

"There are only six seats in this Council chamber, so six is the maximum number of Council members you will have for the time being," Jaina agreed. "Obviously, only Jedi Masters can be on the Council, or the entire Order would be on the Council. So we'll have to make up some temporary numbers."

The holocrons both flashed an intense beam of blue-white light, and two more gatekeepers appeared.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Jedi Masters Saba Sebatyne and Kyp Durron," Kyle announced. "Until our numbers have increased, all the Masters you see before you will be the Jedi Council."

"But aren't you all still only two holocrons?" Liina asked innocently.

"Yeah, but the personalities of the Jedi who created them are retained," Kyp explained. "It'll be no different from having four different people transmitting their image via holo."

"I'll inform the Chancellor," Devin advised. "Kayla and I will still be the Jedi's representatives in the War Council, obviously."

"Very well," Saba said. "Now you wish to ask us about the Mandalorianz?"

"Yes, Master," Kayla began. "Mandalore himself has offered to assist us in finding more Force Sensitives for possible Jedi training. His only conditions were that several Force Sensitive Mandalorians be allowed to train as Jedi, and that we teach them how to effectively fight Sith."

"What's the general attitude of the Mandalorians these days?" Jaina asked. "They used to be war-like and aggressive mercenaries. People who would fight anyone for a big enough sum of credits. We can't have an alliance with people like that."

"I won't argue that they've become completely honourable," Devin answered, "but they _have_ joined the Republic. They claim the Sith tricked them into invading Ansion and Adumar, so they joined us and gave us valuable information, including the identity of the Sith Lord Darth Caeer."

"Then it iz possible that they can be changed," Saba said. "Especially if several of their younglingz are joining the Order."

"I agree with Master Sebatyne," Kyle spoke up. "I don't like that this new Jedi Order is so quickly being involved in military action, but as long as we have the final say in what the Jedi do, and not the Senate or the Chancellor, or especially the Republic Army, then I think it would be wise to go through with this deal. It may even boost the public image of the Jedi."

"I once fought with Mandalorians," Jaina announced, "and although they later became the same conscienceless mercenaries they always were, they were extremely good soldiers and deep down, many even had good hearts. If they can be changed, made into a positive force for the Republic, well I think it's worth a try."

"Master, does the clan name 'Ordo' mean anything to you?" Kayla asked Jaina.

"Ordo…" she seemed to be thinking to herself, despite being a hologram. "There was once a famous clan named Ordo, thousands of years before my time. One of them became Mandalore, and he made the Mandalorians great friends to a certain Jedi named Revan. It was only once Revan disappeared and found the lost Sith Empire that the Mandalorians lost their way again. _That_ Ordo was named Canderous, I believe."

"Well the current Mandalore revealed his identity to me," Kayla responded. "His name is Raelus Ordo, and he claims to be the direct ancestor to that very same Mandalorian."

"Then in that case," Jaina said, "tread carefully, but go through with your agreement. Keep alert and listen to the Force. Remember, historically they are mercenaries. They were willing to invade two Republic planets for pay before joining you."

"Keep them under control, Master Talus," Kyp advised. "I would also befriend Admiral Minvessen. If he understands the importance of the Jedi, he won't be as likely to screw you around."

"Who will you send to train the Mandalorianz?" Saba asked.

Kayla thought about it for a moment before responding. "I can't go there myself. I may be needed back here. I think Ashlyn should go, her combat skills are exceptional."

The whole Council, including Liina, Byz and Lenny, nodded their heads in approval.

"Then it's agreed," Devin spoke. "Ashlyn, you will travel to the planet Mandalore with Raelus and begin their training. Spend no more than two weeks there, we'll need you back on Coruscant eventually."

"Yes, Master," Ashlyn nodded. "What about the younglings?"

"Train them with the others at first, then bring them back with you when you return," Kayla instructed.

At that moment, Mandalore himself approached the entrance to the Council chamber.

"Speaking of which," Kayla noted, detecting his presence, "come in, Raelus."

Raelus Ordo entered the chamber, helmetless in respect for the Jedi Council.

"Welcome to the Jedi Temple, Raelus Ordo," Devin welcomed him. "Your clan is known to the Jedi Order."

"Well, thank you very much, Master Rokanh," Raelus treated them to a rare Mandalorian smile. "I've come to advise you of some news that I didn't want the entire War Council to know about."

"Go ahead," Devin prompted him.

"You're all familiar with the Rule Of Two?"

"There is only ever two, a Master and an Apprentice," Jaina answered.

"That's the one," Raelus snapped his fingers. "The Master was Darth Caeer, the apprentice Darth Rengar, then Darth Vorcyl."

"We're aware of this, Mandalore," Kyp noted.

"Were you aware that we weren't recruited by any of those Sith?"

"You're saying they aren't following the Rule Of Two?" Saba asked. "But this one haz only seen a Master and an Apprentice so far."

"Those are the infiltrators," Raelus clarified. "We were recruited by a man called Darth Leuenaar on Csilla."

"Was he a Chiss?" Kayla asked.

"I couldn't tell. He was all shadows, that one. Spoke slightly Chiss-like, but it was impossible to tell without seeing his face. He claimed to have a high position in the Chiss Ascendancy, so that's why we agreed to fight for him. He offered us hundreds of billions of Republic credits to take Adumar and Ansion for the Chiss, then promptly refused to pay when the Republic wisely chose not to fight back immediately."

"This news is troubling," Jaina said. "It seems we've all been duped."

"I don't think you understand my point," Raelus added. "The Chiss weren't expecting us to change sides. We've just given away vital information that'll cripple them."

"Raelus, with all due respect," Kayla said, "the Sith don't make mistakes like that. They probably had this whole thing flushed out from the beginning. It wouldn't surprise me if their plan was to betray you the entire time."

"So you're saying they _wanted_ us to change sides and give away their secrets?" Raelus asked, his face scrunched up like a confused Kinrath pup.

"I'd say so," Kayla answered. "They probably think they can defeat all their enemies at once. The Mandalorians are a threat to them, after all."

"I hope you're wrong, Master Talus, but I think you aren't. That sounds very Sith-like to me." Kyp commented.

"Ashlyn, Raelus," Kayla addressed them both. "You really need to get moving. As we said earlier, spend no more than two weeks on Mandalore. Train them as well as you can, and ensure that they can continue improving their skills well after you've left. Return immediately when you're done, we'll need you back here."

Mandalore stood in the centre of the chamber seething with rage. "No one fools the Mandalorians. They'll pay for this. All of them."

"All in good time, Raelus," Devin assured him. "But we have to be smart about this. If the Sith were clever enough to fool the Mandalorians _and_ the Jedi, then they aren't to be taken lightly."


	9. The Diversion

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 9 – The Diversion**

One week into their lessons, the dozen Mandalorians warriors under Ashlyn's guidance were learning very quickly. She had already taught them the basics of the defensive lightsaber combat form Soresu, and was about to start teaching them Shien. They stood in the centre of a grassy field outside one of the Mandalorian Military Training centres in Keldabe, where Raelus had said would be the most convenient place for them. Luckily the weather had been pleasant lately, but today it was overcast and rain threatened to spoil their valuable training. For the moment it seemed to be holding out, but Raelus had a backup facility they could use if it did begin raining. The indoor facility was nice, but Ashlyn still hoped it didn't rain. The Mandalorians were quite rough with each other, and there was plenty of falling over going on, so an outdoor training session was really ideal. Grass is a lot less painful to fall on than ferrocrete.

"Shien is a more aggressive melee combat form than Soresu," she began, standing at the front of the group and addressing them as a whole. "It incorporates a lot of the same defensive techniques, but instead of waiting for an opportunity to strike back, with this form you'll create your own. Mandalore, if you'll help me demonstrate."

Raelus eagerly stepped forward, wielding his vibroblade confidently. He dutifully attacked Ashlyn using what he'd learnt so far of Soresu form. Ashlyn easily blocked every attack and showed the group how to create an opening in the opponent's defence.

"It's the way you parry combined with your foot movements that will give you the chance you need to strike a wounding blow," she explained. "The only real drawback of this form is that it requires a lot of focus, which can tire you out, and a lot of strength to be able to parry your opponent's strikes the way you need to."

"Master Valos," asked one of the warriors, "no offense intended, but the average Mandalorian is physically a lot stronger than you are. Do you use this form yourself?"

"No, to be honest," she admitted. "I prefer Ataru form. It's a lot more acrobatic; it involves a lot of jumping and flipping and spinning, that sort of thing."

"So why aren't you teaching us that form instead of this one?" the warrior rebutted. "We're Mandalorian, we should be using the best combat form that you can teach us."

"Quiet down, soldier," Raelus scolded. "This is a privilege that no other Mandalorian in history has ever received."

"It's okay, Mandalore," Ashlyn assured him. "The reason I'm not teaching you all that form is because it requires the Force, which none of you can use except the three younglings. All the leaping around stuff isn't really possible unless you're a circus acrobat or a Jedi."

After another couple of hours Ashlyn called it a day, and Raelus invited the three Force Sensitive Mandalorian younglings and Ashlyn back to his personal residence for some refreshments. Being Mandalorian, the younglings had adapted to the lightsaber combat forms very quickly. But being younglings, they had a lot of questions.

"Master Valos, can you show us what kind of Force attacks a Sith might use against us?" asked one of the younglings, a boy of nine-years named Gavin Hekla.

"Yeah, we need to know how to defend ourselves against the Force," asked his older sister, a pretty but outspoken and tomboyish little girl named Ferros.

"We'll get to that," Ashlyn told them. "I'm going to teach you all a bit of that after you've learnt the sword fighting stuff."

"Can you show us your lightsabers then?" asked the third Force Sensitive kid, a nine-year-old boy named Xander Reklos. "We've never seen one before."

"That's enough questions for today, _ad'ika_," Raelus said, "I'm sure Master Valos has had enough."

"It's okay, I don't mind. Just keep your distance, I don't want to sever anything," Ashlyn warned.

She unhooked both her lightsabers from her belt, then ignited them, first her dark blue saber, then her silver one.

"So that's a real lightsaber," Raelus stared at them, totally transfixed. "Very impressive stuff. Are they difficult to build?"

"To put it simply, yes. Very difficult," Ashlyn answered with a grin. "Every single component needs to be set absolutely perfectly, or it won't work. If you get it really wrong, they can backfire and explode in your hands."

"So how come you have two?" asked Ferros. "If it's so hard to build them, and it takes so much just to learn how to use even one, why?"

"It's all personal preference," Ashlyn explained. "It's whatever suits your fighting style, your physical characteristics, that sort of thing. I'm only small, and not very strong, but I'm fast. Using two sabers helps me take advantage of that."

"Then we should be using two as well then," Gavin announced confidently. "We're only small too. Your lekku are bigger than us."

Raelus and Ashlyn laughed, and Raelus patted Gavin on the head, ruffling his wavy brown hair.

"I don't think it works that way, _nuh'la adiik_," Raelus chuckled, slipping into _Mando'a_ again.

"Maybe once you've learned a few of the lightsaber forms, and some proper Force techniques, then perhaps I'll teach you how to use two sabers," Ashlyn smiled.

"I can't wait to go to Coruscant and see the Jedi Temple. And I _really_ can't wait to learn some cool Force stuff from you," Ferros said to Ashlyn, her little face lighting up with child-like innocence and joy.

"Don't worry, it won't be long now," she assured the girl. "Let's just relax for a while first though. We have a lot to go through tomorrow."

"_Ni'sa hibirar teh'te mesh'la Jetii," _Ferros said in _Mando'a_ to Raelus with a smile.

"_Ret'gar'me,_" Raelus responded.

"What does that mean?" Ashlyn asked, totally confused and a little paranoid every time a Mandalorian spoke their native tongue.

"Sorry Ashlyn, we don't get a lot of non-Mandalorians out here, so I forget I'm not speaking Basic sometimes," he explained with a laugh. "She said 'I want to learn from the beautiful Jedi', and I said that maybe she will."

Ashlyn's heart melted instantly, and she decided then and there that she would take the young Mandalorian girl as her Padawan, although she knew better than to tell her in front of the others.

_Besides, the Council will decide who's to be my Padawan._

* * *

Kayla was walking back to the Jedi Temple after a satisfying lunch with Lenny and Byz when her comlink started buzzing away. Activating it, she instantly heard the gravelly voice of Jake Minvessen.

"_Master Talus, we have a problem. We need you and Master Rokanh to report to the War Council immediately."_

"We'll be there as soon as we can, Admiral," she answered, then turned to Lenny and Byz. "You two go back to the Temple. Something tells me this is going to be big news."

As the two Jedi left, Kayla called Devin and repeated Minvessen's message before hailing a taxi speeder.

As she entered the room she immediately felt the tension as well as saw it on everyone's faces.

_Any bet there's been an attack._

"Welcome, Master Talus," Chancellor Grennar greeted her. "That's everyone now, let's begin. Admiral Minvessen?"

The Admiral stood and addressed the War Council, a sombre look on his face.

"I'll get straight to the point," he began. "Ord Mantell is about to be under attack. Mandalorian scouts near Ansion have detected several Chiss cruisers in hyperspace heading in that direction."

"They're not attacking the shipyards at Bilbringi?" Senator Golan asked the obvious question.

"No, Senator. That's what I asked the Mandalorians as well, but they insist that their trajectory puts them directly in the path of Ord Mantell. The Mandalorian fleet is right behind the Chiss, they should arrive within minutes of them. The Fifth Fleet is already assembled and in orbit above Coruscant; if they leave within the hour, they will be able to intercept the Chiss, hopefully before they do too much damage."

"The fifth fleet," Devin mused. "Isn't that the one you reassigned Bruodu to?"

"Yes indeed, Master Rokanh. He's very keen to prove his abilities to everyone. I say we let him."

"Can he be trusted?" Devin asked. "The last thing we need is a rogue Fleet Admiral throwing soldiers at the Chiss without thinking anything through properly."

"He didn't get to Admiral rank in the first place without knowing what he was doing, Master Jedi," Minvessen assured him.  
Devin looked at Kayla, who frowned knowingly at him, then sent him a thought telepathically. He immediately thought of a lightsaber, and knew what she was trying to tell him.

"We'll send a Jedi to assist," he announced to the War Council.

"I'm glad you said that, Master Rokanh," Grennar smiled. "Admiral, how soon can the Fifth Fleet be deployed?"

"As soon as the Jedi is ready to board, Chancellor."

"Okay then, we're on the move," Grennar said as he stood. "We will not let Ord Mantell fall. Master Rokanh, your Jedi will lead the ground assault, Fleet Admiral Bruodu will take control from the cruisers. Remind him to stay in touch with Admiral Minvessen whenever he can. If Bruodu causes any trouble, remember your Jedi outranks him."

* * *

Devin and Kayla entered the Council chamber, where the four hologram masters were already activated and waiting, having been reprogrammed to be activated by any of the Jedi. Liina, Lenny and Byz were also waiting, having been summoned already.

"Thanks for being so prompt," Devin said. "The War Council just received word that the Mandalorians have spotted the Chiss in hyperspace heading towards Ord Mantell. The Fifth Fleet will be sent to assist the Mandalorians, and will be leaving as soon as they can. We've decided to send a Jedi to assist."

"Who though?" Master Kyp Durron asked, his holographic hand stroking his beard.

"Lenny and Byz, you two take your X-Wings and board the _Avalanche_," Kayla told them. "Lenny, you'll be leading the ground assault, Fleet Admiral Bruodu will be in command in the Cruiser."

"Bruodu iz the one who hatez the Jedi, iz he not? Master Sebatyne hissed.

"That's right, Master Saba," Kayla confirmed. "That's why it's important for Lenny to know that he outranks Bruodu."

"Do I also outrank him?" Byz asked hopefully.

"No, sorry Byz," Devin informed him. "A Jedi General outranks a Fleet Admiral, but not a Jedi Commander."

"Be sure that Bruodu keeps in contact with Admiral Minvessen," Kayla advised Lenny. "Don't let him do anything without your approval. This is the first real battle of the war, and we can't allow Bruodu to make silly mistakes. Whoever wins this battle will gain a psychological victory over the other."

"Yes, Master," Lenny said. "Don't worry, I'll keep him under control."

"Start by evacuating the Jubilee Wheel back to the surface of Ord Mantell, and ensure they have evac ships ready to go in case things turn bad," Devin advised him.

"And may the Force be with you, Lenny," Kyle added.

Lenny and Byz bowed to the Council, then turned around and left the chamber. After they'd gone, Jaina spoke up.

"What's troubling you, Master Rokanh?"

"I just hope they're ready for this. Lenny's only been with us for around seven months."

"I wouldn't worry about that one," Saba Sebatyne assured him. "Remember, he was using the Force long before you met him. He is capable."

"You should be more concerned about your outfits," Kyp smiled. "It's been months and none of you have Jedi robes yet. At least have them for important occasions."

"Some Jedi don't like to wear the robes all the time," Jaina defended. "In the end it's up to the individual, but I agree to a certain extent. It's proper for a Jedi to have robes, even if only for special occasions."

"We can think about that when and if we get through this first battle," Kayla frowned. "Besides, robes are loose and get in the way. And they're not very flattering. They would make me look huge."

Devin shook his head mockingly. "We're at war and you're talking about Jedi fashion." He got up out of his Council chair and began walking off. "I'm going to do something useful and call Ashlyn and the younglings back from Mandalore. We're going to need her help if things go awry. Oh, and Kayla?"

Kayla raised an eyebrow, waiting for his response.

"Black is a slimming colour."

Kyp and Jaina started laughing, while Kayla growled at Devin as he left and used the Force to trip him over in retaliation.

"Only trying to help," Devin said sarcastically.

* * *

As the _Avalanche_ came out of hyperspace near the Jubilee Wheel orbiting Ord Mantell, Lenny and Byz immediately sensed that something was very wrong. Despite the hailstorm of laser bolts that was already engulfing space, the Chiss force seemed to be rather small for an invasion force.

"Launch all fighters, prepare the landing craft," Bruodu ordered an officer.

"Keep the landing craft at bay for now, Admiral," Lenny said, transfixed on the Chiss fleet.

"What do you know about it, Jedi scum?" Bruodu snapped, stabbing a finger at Lenny's chest. "We didn't come here to watch Ord Mantell fall, we came here to defend it."

"Just take a look, Admiral, before you start making claims," Lenny replied calmly, pointing at the Chiss fighters moving into attack formations. "Do you see any ground assault craft? 'Cause I certainly don't."

Bruodu looked closer, then grumbled loudly. "That doesn't matter. Why else would they be here if not to capture Ord Mantell? We have to launch the landers in preparation for the attack."

"Do that, and you'll lose this battle, Bruodu," Lenny frowned. "Ord Mantell doesn't have anything the Chiss could possibly want other than another staging ground, which they won't need if they hold this entire end of the Corellian Run. Something is wrong here."

"So you're going to sit back and wait for the Chiss to start landing troops first before we do anything?"

Lenny's face turned calm again. "All I'm saying is that we should be patient. Something is not right with this whole scenario. If we rush into it, we're going to make a mistake."

"Master Tanski is right, Admiral," Byz said, stepping towards Bruodu. "The Chiss force is much too small for an invasion, and they were clearly here before we were. They had time to get in and take positions on the planet, but they didn't."

"What are you suggesting then, youngling?" Bruodu said with clenched teeth.  
Byz smiled slyly. "I'm suggesting that the Chiss aren't here to capture Ord Mantell. They're here for something else. We need to wait until things get clearer before we do anything serious."

"He's right, Admiral. The cruisers aren't firing, only the fighters are. We haven't even sustained a single hit yet."

Bruodu had to concede that the Jedi were correct, but his pride would never allow him to admit it without at least a hint of annoyance. "I disagree, Tanski, but tell me what you suggest we do anyway."

"Keep the fighters busy, and wait for them to make a move. Whatever it may be, it won't be a very serious or well-constructed effort, so we'll have time to counter it effectively."

"_Won't_ be a well-constructed effort? Are you crazy?"

"Watch and see," Lenny responded, turning back to the battle.

Sure enough, several Chiss landing craft launched from the cruiser's hangar bay and made their way towards the Jubilee Wheel, but without any fighter escort.

"See?" Lenny pointed. "No escort, and heading for the Wheel, not the planet. I'm taking two landing craft with full squadrons of troops. Let me know as soon as anything happens, and don't you dare make a move without telling me, Bruodu. You're on thin ice as it is, don't make it any worse for yourself."

"Sir, yes sir, _General_," Bruodu spat sarcastically.

Lenny ushered Byz towards the _Avalanche_'s hangar, where they quickly briefed the troops.

"Commander," Lenny addressed a tall, well-built man sporting several facial scars and twin blaster pistols.

"Sir," he responded with stiff military discipline.

"You're leading Bravo squad. We need your group to hold the hangar and surrounding areas. Ensure nothing gets to our ships, or we're stranded on the Wheel."

"You got it, General," he replied with a confident smile.

"Byz, I need you to go to the Wheel's security and coordinate their forces. Keep in contact with me, and keep an eye on the Chiss."

"Yes, master," he replied with a nod. "What will you be doing?"

"I'll be looking for our friend Runice."

"You felt it too, Master?"

"She wants us to know she's here. That's why I was so sceptical about this whole attack." Lenny turned back to the troop Commander. "If you see Darth Vorcyl, do not engage, just comm me and keep your distance."

"Of course, General," the Commander replied with another grin. "I'm not like the Admiral. I listen to my orders."

Lenny grinned back at him. "Nice one. Now let's get going. The Wheel won't defend itself."

The Commander barked at the troops, who filed diligently into the two landing craft. As soon as they were all aboard, the craft lifted on their repulsors and took off towards the Jubilee Wheel. Just before reaching it, Bruodu commed Lenny.

"_General, the Chiss cruiser is still not firing back. I'm going to open fire on it as soon as you land."_

"Do not engage the Chiss cruiser, Admiral!" Lenny said, horrified. "I promise you it's a trap. Do NOT fire on that cruiser! That's an order!"

"_You Jedi make me sick. We have a clear opening and you refuse to take it," _Bruodu sighed disdainfully. _"Fine, I'll hold my fire for now. But if you don't make it back within the hour, I'm changing my mind."_

"You fire on that ship and the only thing you'll be going back to Coruscant for is your court martial, Admiral. I gave you an order, and you'll follow it."

As the landing craft lowered themselves onto one of the Jubilee Wheel's hangar bays closest to where the Chiss were headed, Lenny and Byz were already leaping out of it and springing into action.

As Byz reached the security office, the head security officer approached him in a fluster and saluted hurriedly.

"What's going on, Commander?" he asked, his cheeks red and his forehead sweaty.

"The Chiss have landed an assault craft in a nearby hangar. Our forces are engaging them in space, but they haven't landed anything on Ord Mantell yet," Byz replied.

"That's a relief," the security officer said, wiping his forehead with a cloth pulled from his shirt pocket. "Oh, and all people on board the Wheel have been evacuated to the surface, so there's no danger of sentient collateral. So what else can we do to help?"

"I need to know where the Chiss forces are heading."

"Just give me a moment, Commander Akkon."

The security officer concentrated on various screens, trying to figure out where the Chiss had landed.

"Commander Akkon," Alpha team's troop captain addressed Byz. "Commander Kryss just reported that there is no movement at all within or around the hangar."

"Thanks, Nolan," Byz nodded before turning back to the security officer.

"That's strange, there doesn't appear to be any Chiss troops," the security officer stated, pointing at a screen.

"What? None at all?" Byz stepped closer, studying the screens carefully. Sure enough, the screens observing the hangar the Chiss assault craft had landed in and the surrounding areas were empty of all personnel, except for one. The screen observing a corridor adjacent to the hangar the Republic troops had landed in showed a single person walking slowly towards the hangar. _A Twi'lek, by the look of it, _Byz thought, and immediately commed Commander Kryss.

"Commander, Vorcyl is headed your way. Pull all your troops back to defend the landing craft."

"_Yes, Commander. General Tanski has already gone looking for her though,"_ Kryss advised.

"I'll take care of that. Just make sure that Twi'lek doesn't ruin our ride out of here."

Byz then hailed Lenny, but got nothing except static.

"Master, Vorcyl is headed to our hangar. Repeat, Vorcyl is headed for our hangar. Master, come in!"

With only static coming through, it was obvious that Lenny's wrist comm had been damaged somehow, which meant he'd have to face Vorcyl on his own. Just as he was starting to panic, he heard a double-click on his comm cut through the static.

"Commander Akkon, I believe Lenny's using an old pilot's affirmation," Nolan explained. " A double-click means he's acknowledged what you said."

Byz sighed with relief. "Okay then, let's head back to the hangar. Lenny's gonna need our help."

"What about us?" the security officer asked Byz.

"Stay here and monitor the screens. Wait until everyone's left, then comm me and we'll let you know what the situation is. Don't let any of your people get close to the action."

Lenny ran as fast as he could, having been moving in completely the wrong direction in an effort to intercept Vorcyl. Through deduction, he'd figured out that assault craft was empty except for Vorcyl herself. He couldn't categorically verify it as the truth, as his comm unit was malfunctioning - no doubt a plot put together by Bruodu. He tried to contact Bruodu, but at the moment all he could do was acknowledge or disagree using comm clicks. As he reached the hangar, Vorcyl had already begun laying into the troops and had wiped out half of Bravo squad. He rushed over to Commander Kryss, who had taken up a cover position behind some cargo crates.

"Thank the Force you made it, General," Kryss said through his helmet's filter. "She's cutting through us like we're nothing."

"Wait for Alpha squad to get here with Byz, then fly back to the _Avalanche_ and have our droids land the X-Wings here. Byz and I can handle Vorcyl."

As if on command, Byz came rushing into the hangar with Alpha squad in tow. Kryss yelled as loud as he could for the troops to get into the landing craft, then took off back to the _Avalanche_.

"You made it," Vorcyl said loudly from across the hangar before leaping almost a full hundred metres to their position.

"I wouldn't miss it for anything," Lenny replied, activating his orange saberstaff.

"You've made our job a lot easier, you know," Vorcyl winked, biting her lower lip.

Lenny started feeling the familiar tingle again, and focused himself as much as possible, trying to supress it. "And just how is two Jedi against one Sith making your job any easier?"

"You haven't figured it out yet, have you sweetie," Vorcyl taunted, strutting over to the two Jedi with her usual sultriness.

Lenny looked at Byz with a confused expression, then both their faces lit up with shock and utter disappointment in themselves as Bruodu commed Lenny.

"_The troops are on board and your X-Wings are away. I'm going after that cruiser, General."_

Lenny screamed desperately into his wrist comm, ordering Bruodu not to give chase, but remembered that it was broken. He looked out through the ray-shield into space and saw the _Avalanche_ disappear into lines, following the Chiss cruiser into hyperspace.

"Hail him," Lenny ordered Byz, who immediately tried to contact Bruodu on his own wrist comm.

"Admiral, come in, this is Commander Akkon. Admiral!"

"_Yes, Commander. What seems to be the issue?"_

"Change your course right now, you're walking into a trap. Head to Bilbringi as fast as you possibly can!"

"_I don't take orders from younglings. Goodbye, Jedi scum."_

"Admiral! Admiral!" Byz yelled, but didn't even get static. "That sleemo cut the link."

"And now you've lost an entire fleet, Lenny," Vorcyl bit her lip again. "I can make you feel better though."

The tingling that Lenny had been repressing suddenly re-emerged with twice the intensity, and he doubled over, deactivating his saberstaff just in time to prevent landing on it.

"Not this time, Twi'lek," Byz snarled, Force-pushing Vorcyl dozens of metres away, immediately breaking her concentration and freeing his master.

"Hmm, kid's got some talent," Vorcyl huffed as she got up again.

"Thanks Byz," Lenny mumbled, wiping away the sweat that had formed on his face.

A huge roar came from behind them, and the two Jedi spun around to see their X-Wings gliding into the hangar.

"Time to go, Master," Byz said.

"We have to finish her off first, or she'll just get away again," Lenny retorted angrily.

"You're not going anywhere."

Lenny and Byz felt their throats constrict as they were lifted off the ground. They both clutched desperately at the invisible hands to no avail, as Vorcyl giggled away below them. She lifted them higher and higher, some twenty metres off the ground, then squeezed tighter. The two Jedi's eyes nearly popped out of their head as the pressure reached unbearable levels.

"Your fleet has just followed my cruiser to Bilbringi, where it will be crushed by a mass of Chiss forces," Vorcyl taunted them. "They won't be able to call in any reinforcements because we've already taken out the holonet in that sector. Bilbringi is ours, Lenny, and sadly you won't be around to see it. Oh, I almost forgot," Vorcyl gripped them tighter yet again, and Byz was knocked out cold. "We have a surprise waiting for you Jedi. You think I'm strong, but you haven't seen anything yet."

Vorcyl giggled away like a schoolgirl, continuing to crush Byz's throat after he'd been knocked out. Lenny seethed in anger, welling up a massive amount of Force energy, then let it explode, knocking back everything within fifty metres of him, even pushing the two X-Wings back a few feet. Vorcyl was sent flying, releasing himself and Byz, who fell to the hangar floor with a loud _thud_.

_Byz is right, we have to go right now, _Lenny told himself as he calmed down.

He concentrated the Force on a bunch of cargo containers and sent them flying straight at Vorcyl, not to injure her but to trap her for long enough so they could escape. He checked Byz's pulse, and sighed with massive relief when he felt one. He lifted Byz with the Force and placed him as gently and quickly as possible into the cockpit of his X-Wing before leaping into his own.

"Get us out of here, Blue," Lenny told his R2 droid, then addressed Byz's droid for him. "Little, just follow Blue and make sure that Byz is okay."

The two X-Wings floated out of the hangar on repulsors just as Vorcyl regained her composure and blasted the cargo containers away in all directions. As Blue and Little engaged the sublight drives, a scroll of text appeared on Lenny's monitor which read '_SHOULD WE PLOT A COURSE TO CORUSCANT?'_

"No, not yet Blue. I need to contact the Jedi Council and let them know about Bilbringi first. It's under attack."

_I'LL HAIL MASTER TALUS FOR YOU._

Almost instantly, a holo of Kayla's thin, shapely body appeared in front of him.

"_Lenny, good to hear from you. I've felt something disturbing in the Force."_

"It's Bilbringi, Kayla. Ord Mantell was a diversion," Lenny explained.

"_That explains a lot, actually," _Kayla said, folding her arms across her chest. _"We haven't received word from anyone out that way, even the Mandalorians, so I'm guessing the holonet's been taken down."_

"That's right, Master. The Chiss cruiser they sent here was totally empty except for Vorcyl. She explained everything to me just in time for us to be too late."

"_Have you forgotten about the Mandalorians already?"_

Lenny suddenly remembered that the Mandalorians were following the Chiss fleet through hyperspace, but never actually arrived at Ord Mantell. His face lit up as he realised what they'd done.

"Kayla that's fantastic! Okay we're headed back to Coruscant right now. Byz is a little banged up but he'll be fine. We'll see you soon."

"_No you won't, Lenny," _Kayla answered him back.

"You're just the tiniest bit less cute when you disagree with me, you know?"

"_That still makes me cuter than everyone else," _Kayla smiled cheekily, relaxing into a more appealing posture, _"but in all seriousness, I want you and Byz to head to Bilbringi and group up with the fleet. They're gonna need your help. I'm heading there right now with Liina and Ashlyn. Dev is staying behind to look after the younglings."_

"There's one more thing, Kayla," Lenny said with a more sombre look. "Bruodu."

"_He didn't mess up again, did he?"_

"Ah…you could say that."

"_What happened, Lenny?"_

"Well, when the Chiss cruiser took off, Bruodu went after it with the entire fleet. We'd told the troops to go back to the _Avalanche_ and send our fighters over, so it was only Byz and I on the Jubilee Wheel."

"_You did tell him not to, right?"_

"I couldn't, he gave me a bad wrist comm. It lasted all of about two transmissions before the microphone busted and I couldn't transmit. Byz tried to tell him, but Bruodu outranks him so he just called us 'Jedi scum' and left anyway."

Kayla sighed visibly and audibly, then put her hands on her hips, clearly disappointed but not surprised. _"Well, there's nothing we can do about that now. Just get to Bilbringi as fast as you can."_

"But what about the fifth fleet? He's going to get all those men killed!"

"_Lenny, there's nothing anyone can do about that right now,"_ Kayla reiterated. _"No holonet at Bilbringi, remember? You can get angry with Bruodu as much as you want when you get there."_


	10. The Greys

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 10 – The Greys**

"Get me the Mandalorians. I need to speak with them immediately," Kayla said to the flustered communications officer as soon as they came out of hyperspace. A hologram of a handsome, square-jawed Mandalorian captain appeared in front of her.

"_General Talus,"_ the Mandalorian greeted her with a salute, _"boy am I glad to see you. The Chiss have six cruisers and plenty of fighters at their disposal. We've kept them from hitting the shipyards directly for the moment, but I don't know how much longer we can hold our position."_

"We'll take it from here, Captain," Kayla told him. "Rearrange your forces for a strike on the smaller cruisers, we'll put our capital ships up front to hold them off. And keep your eyes open for any landing craft that might be headed for the shipyards themselves. We've got no idea whether they'll try and hit them with an orbital bombardment or send a team in to destroy it from the inside."

"_No problem, General. Oh and by the way, your fifth fleet arrived some time ago, but they're behind enemy lines and we can't get any response from Admiral Bruodu. He's completely disabled the comms on the _Avalanche_."_

"How's he holding up?"

"_For now he seems to be okay, but the ship's losing shields fast. He's managed to cripple the cruiser he was chasing, but from what our sensors can gather it was empty anyway."_

"Has anyone evacuated it?"

"_No, General. We haven't seen any craft or escape pods or anything at all launching from it. Why do you ask?"_

"Well if we can't call them on the ship, we might be able to get a hold of Commander Kryss inside."

"_I gather the Admiral's gone rogue then?"_

"Unfortunately, yes," Kayla sighed, trying to think of a way she could save the _Avalanche_. "Thank you Captain. Proceed with your strike, and may the Force be with you."

"_And you, General."_

Kayla immediately contacted Commander Kryss on her wrist comm. Although the reception was very poor, she could hear him clearly enough to converse with him.

"Commander, are you there?"

"_General Talus!" _Kryss replied with enthusiasm. _"The ship's going down, Bruodu won't give up his position. He's locked the bridge down and we can't access it. He's shooting anyone who won't do as they're told."_

Kayla turned to an officer nearby. "Can you get a reading on the _Avalanche_'s shields?"

The officer studied the readouts for a few moments before replying. "Fifteen percent, and falling. To be blunt, General, the ship's history."

"Spast!" Kayla cursed, then turned back to Commander Kryss. "Shields are at fifteen percent, Commander. Get as many people off the ship as you can, as quickly as possible. Use the auxiliary comms to warn anyone still on the bridge to try and make it to the escape pods."

"_Yes, General. What about my men? Where do you want us?"_

"Get everyone to the _Corel Star_, wait for us in the starboard hangar."

"_See you soon, General."_

Commander Kryss' hologram faded into nothingness, and Kayla quickly turned her attention to the battle unfolding in front of her. The Chiss had two large cruisers the size of the _Avalanche_ and _Corel Star_, but also four smaller ones. Two of the smaller ones were finishing off the _Avalanche_ while the other two were engaging the two Mandalorian cruisers. The two large Chiss cruisers had been firing on the remnants of the Fifth Fleet, but now one of them began to move between the Bilbringi shipyards and the _Corel Star_.

"That's their move," Kayla turned to the _Corel Star_'s Captain, Admiral Deugan.

"They're trying to cut us off from the shipyards," Deugan said in his thick, distinguished Coruscanti accent.

"Which means they're going to try and destroy it from the inside. If they get too close, we won't be able to fire on them without hitting our own docked ships," Kayla surmised. "Admiral, launch a squadron of fighters from each cruiser. Tell the rest of the Fifth Fleet to concentrate their fire on the other large cruiser for now, and try to get themselves back over this way. If they stay so close to the Chiss fleet they're going to get themselves killed. Keep the Mandalorians on the smaller cruisers for now, and watch for General Tanski and Commander Akkon. They'll be coming in from Ord Mantell any minute now. When they arrive, they should join the flyboys."

"Very well, General," Deugan replied with a crisp, affirming nod. "Where are you going, though?"

Kayla smiled at him sweetly. "There's a disturbance in the Force. I think there's someone powerful boarding the shipyards, and it would be rude of me not to say hello in person." She turned away and headed for the _Corel _Star's starboard hangar, but stopped after a few metres and turned around again. "Well, are you two coming or not?"

Liina and Ashlyn jumped in surprise, then jogged after her. Kayla had gone into General-mode so efficiently that they'd forgotten they might actually be needed for something important, and spent the whole time watching her in amazement. As soon as they snapped out of it, they both felt the disturbance.

"Kayla, whatever that is, it's a lot more powerful than Darth Vorcyl. Are you sure about this?" Ashlyn asked pensively as they made their way down to the hangar.

"I think we've got two choices," Kayla replied. "Either we send several squads of troops in on their own and they all get killed, or we send three Jedi in with them and see what happens."

"Maybe we should wait for Lenny and Byz to get here," Liina suggested.

"I need them in their fighters," Kayla explained to her. "Don't worry, there's only one of him and three of us. We'll be fine."

"But remember what Jaina told us about Emperor Palpatine?" Liina asked worriedly. "He took on three Jedi Masters and killed them all, by himself. We only have one Jedi Master, and this guy feels tough."

Kayla allowed herself a chuckle to try and loosen the mood. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Besides, we have no idea what this guy – or girl, for that matter – is actually like. It might just be him pumping himself up to try and scare us, we just don't know. Plus, you guys are doubting yourselves. Let's just see what happens. Remember, you're Jedi Knights. The Force is with you."

* * *

Commander Kryss was already waiting for them with Captain Nolan and the rest of their squads down in the starboard hangar when Kayla, Liina and Ashlyn arrived. He saluted them crisply, then joined his men on the landing craft they'd arrived in, with the three Jedi in tow behind them.

"What's the plan, General?" Kryss asked Kayla as the landing crafts took off.

"You probably saw this on your way over here, but the Chiss have parked one of their big cruisers between us and the shipyards. We think they're going to board it and destroy the whole lot from within, if they haven't boarded it already," Kayla advised.

"So we send one squad to secure the reactor and another to protect the docked ships?" Kryss asked.

"They won't be going for the ships, Commander," Ashlyn told him. "They'll probably just send everyone after the reactor."

"Hmm," Kryss mumbled, thinking to himself. "So we send one squad in each direction to cut them off then."

"That's right," Kayla affirmed. "You take Alpha squad with Ashlyn and Liina and take the starboard side, I'll go with Captain Nolan and take Beta squad. One more thing, Commander."

"What's that?" Kryss asked, picking up on the seriousness in Kayla's voice.

"There's a powerful Force-user with them. Just make sure you don't get too close to whoever it is."

"Another one, huh," Kryss grinned. "I never thought I'd say this, but we'll let you girls handle the difficult stuff for us."

"Oh you'll be saying it a whole lot more often if we survive this," Liina winked at him.

The landing craft soon settled into the main hangar bay of the shipyards facility, coming to a complete stop with a metallic clang as the landing gear hit the duracrete floor. The two groups went their separate ways, and Kayla immediately felt the presence of the mystery Sith Lord on board. Beta squad travelled almost the entire way to the reactor core before they even saw anyone. Just outside the reactor room were stationed two Chiss soldiers armed with heavy blaster carbines, who immediately spotted them and took up cover positions.

"We'll handle this," Captain Nolan told Kayla, and instructed his men to open fire.

Kayla leaped in front of the squad and drew her lightsabers, deflecting as many laser bolts as she could. Inevitably though, some got through and while Nolan himself dispatched one of the soldiers with a clean headshot, two of his men were killed. The second Chiss was taken out by one of the Beta squad members, and the team's medic quickly ran over to check on the wounded. With a solemn shake of the head he confirmed the two fatalities.

"We have to keep moving," Kayla told Nolan. "They're already inside. Come on."

The door to the reactor room was locked down, so Kayla plunged her lightsabers through it and cut a neat circle, then Force-pushed the cut-out and dived through. As she rolled into a crouch she saw a red flash of light speeding towards her and ducked out of its way.

"Get down!" she yelled to the troops, but it was too late. The red lightsaber had cut down every single member of Beta squad. Kayla looked up, seething with anger, and was shocked to see that the owner of the red saber was fending off both Ashlyn and Liina at the same time, apparently while able to throw his lightsaber with the Force as well. He was of a large stature; not huge, but quite big, and quite clearly a Chiss. He Force-pushed the two girls aside and turned his attention to Kayla.

"It's about time you arrived," he boomed with a Force-enhanced voice. "I was getting tired of playing with the tail-heads. And let's be honest, there isn't much time. I've already had to deal with your little soldiers too. Quite annoying, but a simple task nonetheless."

Kayla looked around the room and noticed immediately that the reactor was already set to blow, the core heating rapidly. Then she noticed the dozen dead soldiers, among them Commander Kryss.

"I'll kill you for that, sleemo. Slowly," Kayla said through gritted teeth.

"My, my," the Chiss chuckled, "you're a Jedi Master, are you not? Master Talus, isn't it? That's very unbecoming of a Jedi."

"He's a monster, Kayla, don't try it," Liina warned as she stood up again and activated her pale-green saberstaff.

"Yes, listen to your friend," the Chiss Sith said, almost sounding light-hearted. "You shouldn't try it. I would hate to cripple the Jedi Order before it's even had a chance to provide me with a worthy adversary."

"Ashlyn, Liina, stay back," Kayla said, barely controlling her rage.

"Allow me to assist you with your request, Master Talus," the Chiss said with a twisted grin, then promptly lifted both girls off the ground by their throats using the Force and hurled them into a wall, knocking them out cold. "Don't worry, they aren't dead yet. I'm going to need to subdue you first, so you can watch them die in person. To eliminate all doubt of your failure, of course."

"Enough talk," Kayla yelled. "Time to die."

With a pained scream, she leapt over to the Chiss with lightning speed and began hammering away at his defences with a flurry of blue and purple blade-work. The Sith just smiled and fended off all her strikes with ease, using only a single saber. Kayla's rage fuelled her, and she allowed her Juyo lightsaber form to confuse the Sith with its erratic strikes and seemingly random movements, deliberately making it look as though she were using another form sloppily. Suddenly he Force-pushed her away a few feet to regain his composure.

"You're becoming unbalanced by your hatred, Jedi," he mocked, taking the bait. "I'll give you one more chance to show me what you've got, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to move on."

Kayla just grinned wickedly at him and charged again, using the Force to speed up her movements. She slashed downwards with both sabers, causing him to have to defend with all his considerable strength. He was easily able to push her back, being quite a lot bigger and stronger than the tiny Kayla. She felt her throat close up then, and then her feet left the ground. Struggling against the Chiss' grip, she kicked her legs desperately, her anger swelling rapidly the tighter he squeezed.

"I'm sorry about this, Master Talus, but I'm really not impressed. I'm going to have to say goodbye now, as I have very important things to attend to. I'm sure you understand."

"Understand _this_, Sith scum," Kayla squeaked, then sent a powerful blast of lightning thundering into the Chiss' chest. He was sent flying backwards, hitting the duracrete wall hard enough to crack it. Moving as quickly as possible and with the Force again augmenting her, she bolted over to him and slashed downwards at his hand, slicing his lightsaber hilt in half. As the Chiss grumbled angrily, he again picked her up by the throat and lifted her off the ground. As Kayla choked and coughed, fighting for the oxygen being denied to her, he doubled over, releasing her instantly, a scorch mark burned into his armoured chest plate. Kayla picked herself up and turned around to see Liina panting heavily, her hands cupped as if holding a ball.

"Move aside, Kayla," she warned, and Kayla stepped back diligently. The pretty Twi'lek let out a grunt as she sent an intense ball of red energy straight at the Sith's chest again, which struck home and hammered him powerfully back into the wall, crumbling it and leaving a sizable crater.

_Kyle told me about this power,_ Kayla thought to herself, her eyes wide with amazement at the Twi'lek's abilities. _He said a Dark Jedi named Jerec used it against him._

Before she had time to admire the girl any more, the Sith regained his composure again and laughed heartily at all three of them.

"Well, I am certainly impressed now," he boomed in his Chiss-accented Basic. You've come a long way in a short amount of time. But it's not going to be enough, I'm afraid."

He raised his hands, and all three girls were again choked and lifted painfully off the ground. Kayla tried to blast him with lightning again, but found he had immobilised their hands as well this time.

"There are many more like me waiting for their own chance to destroy the Jedi. Far be it from me to deny them that pleasure," he said, glancing at the reactor core. "And would you look at the time! It seems I have somewhere else to be right now. Farewell, ladies. It's been a pleasure."

He then hurled all three girls across the room and into the opposite wall, then promptly disappeared from view using a Force trick.

"We have to go," Kayla said as she stood up again. "That reactor's about to blow."

As they left they heard a stirring and a muffled grunt, and realised one of the soldiers was still alive.

"It's Commander Kryss! He's alive!" Ashlyn rushed over and helped him up. "Give me a hand."

"What's going on?" Kryss mumbled groggily. "Did I miss something important?"

"Put it this way," Kayla smiled at him as she helped Ashlyn lift him up. "We've got about a minute to get back to the landing craft and get the hell out of here, or we're all toast."

"I knew I missed something. Did you holorecord it, by any chance?"

* * *

"Hailing the _Corel Star_," Lenny said after re-emerging from hyperspace. "Come in, _Corel Star_."

"_This is Admiral Deugan of the _Corel Star_. Good to see you, General Tanski_._"_

"Admiral, what's the situation?"

"_Generals Talus, Valos and Hriyek have entered the shipyards facility already, apparently there's a Chiss ground crew and a Force user on board attempting to blow it up from the inside. Out here it's about even. General Talus has asked that you and your Padawan join Red Squadron_._"_

"_Master," _Byz interrupted, _"I don't think there's much point doing that. The shipyards…"_

Lenny concentrated his senses on the shipyards and felt the desperation in the Force, shortly before the larger Chiss cruiser moved out of position and began to orient its port-side straight at the planet.

"Byz is right, Admiral. Those shipyards are seconds away from the pages of history, and if that cruiser has any long-range turbolasers then the planet is gone too."

"_How can you tell?"_ Admiral Deugan asked, then quickly shook his head in dismissal. _"I guess it doesn't matter. We need to do something about the people of Bilbringi. Clearly, they're next."_

Lenny thought for a few moments, trying to do some maths on the population of Bilbringi. "Admiral, how many can you fit on those cruisers?"

"_The _Corel Star_ can house around two thousand troops, the smaller cruisers can only take about-"_

"No, Admiral, I mean, how many people can they _fit_?"

"_Sir, with all due respect, we're in the middle of a pitched battle. The Chiss aren't going to let us just land our cruisers and evacuate everyone."_

"_If I may cut in," _the Mandalorian Captain suddenly interrupted, _"Mandalore is arriving with a fresh Cruiser and will hold off the Chiss fleet along with our two cruisers. Get your fleet on the planet and evacuate as many people as you can."_

"The Captain's right, Admiral. Get them all planet-side immediately, or there won't be anyone left on the planet _to_ evacuate. We'll hold them off while you work. And see if you can patch me through to someone on the surface."

"_Right away, General._"

The Admiral did as he was told and Lenny was patched through to a Republic Field Commander based on Bilbringi.

"_This is Commander Villanov. Proceed, General._"

"Commander, the battle is lost and the shipyards are seconds away from total destruction. How soon can you evacuate the people of Bilbringi?"

"_We've already evacuated most of the population to the night-side, away from the shipyards," _the Commander informed. _"We have four large cruisers from the shipyards ready to go over there, but we'll need maybe three more to be able to get most of the people away. Some have their own transport, they're just waiting for the word from us."_

"Excellent," Lenny was about to continue when the shipyards erupted in a massive fireball. "Get moving, Commander. We'll hold them off up here as long as we can. We're sending the _Corel Star_ and two smaller cruisers to assist with the evacuation."  
_"Is the plan still to evacuate to Dantooine?"_  
"Yes, that's about as good as it gets for the time being. Now go!"

Commander Villanov's hologram disappeared and Lenny found himself surrounded by Chiss fighters.

_How did I end up in an X-Wing…really…flying is for droids…_

As Lenny vaporised one of the fighters, a huge Mandalorian cruiser arrived and parked itself right in front of the Chiss fleet, immediately opening fire.

"_That's Mandalore, Master, he's arrived. Let's get to the planet and help out," _Byz said with relief.

* * *

"That's a Mandalorian cruiser," Ashlyn noted, pointing out the viewport at the newly arrived warship.

"It looks like they're going to hold them off for us," Liina surmised.

"Lenny's here then," Kayla said, activating her comlink. "Lenny, I take it you've already warned the planet?

"_Heading there now, Kayla. You girls made it out of there in one piece then?"_

"We did, but the entire squad except for Kryss was killed."

"_Damn," _Lenny sighed. _"Well, get down to the planet, I think we're gonna need all the help we can get if we're gonna evacuate most of it."_

"See you soon, Lenny," Kayla turned to the landing craft's pilot then. "Change course, we're going to the surface to help the evacuation."

"You got it, General."

As the pilot expertly dodged laser bolt after laser bolt, Kayla felt the dark presence of the Chiss Sith slowly fade.

_He's not going planet-side…they're going to blast the whole thing!_

As soon as she finished thinking it, the larger Chiss cruiser opened fire on Bilbringi's day-side, devastating the surface, setting everything ablaze. Kayla's eyes widened in horror as she stared helplessly at the ensuing destruction.

"_General! Come in, General Talus!" _came a desperate call from the bridge of the _Avalanche_.

"This is Talus, go ahead, _Avalanche_."

"_General, Lieutenant Kursough, Fifth Fleet. I've removed Admiral Bruodu from command, and we still have a skeleton staff up here on the bridge. The Chiss have stopped firing on us for the moment, they've all engaged the Mandalorian cruiser_ Honour_."_

Kayla looked at Ashlyn and Liina, and all three girls' faces lit up upon hearing the good news.

"What are your shields like, Lieutenant?"

"_Seven percent. Hyperdrive is fully functional though. I can see our ships moving to the night-side of Bilbringi, what's going on?"_

"We're evacuating the planet," Kayla told him. "We could use your help. Can you make it to the surface?"

"_I think so. That's if the Chiss don't notice us."_

Liina leaned over and whispered to Kayla. "Maybe they could ram the big one, stop it from firing on the planet."

Kayla thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Bad idea. It might work, but I think the Chiss would see that coming. They'd just shoot it down. If they're busy attacking the Mandalorians, they might not see the _Avalanche_ escaping behind them."

"Plus, it's a huge ship, capable of carrying lots of people," Ashlyn added.

"But with seven percent shields, what if it gets shot down with tens of thousands of people on board?" Liina argued.

"And what if it doesn't?" Kayla frowned, folding her arms across her chest. "I think it's worth trying. We can cover it while it gets away into hyperspace. If we send the ship on a kamikaze run, thousands more people will die on the surface. People we could have saved, or at least tried to. Could you live with that?"

Liina looked down at her feet. "I suppose not."

"_Hurry, General. They'll remember us any minute," _Lieutenant Kursough interrupted.

"Head to the planet and assist with the evacuation. Make sure you're first to fill up. We'll have the _Corel Star_ cover your escape," Kayla ordered.

"_Yes, General. We'll let you know when we're done."_

Kayla then activated the landing craft's holotransmitter, and Admiral Deugan appeared once more.

"_Yes, General?"_

"I need you to cover the _Avalanche_'s escape. We just got word from one of the survivors that Bruodu has been subdued, so they're heading for the planet to assist. And make sure you're the last ones off the planet. We're all headed for Dantooine, as discussed. All five of us will be on the surface assisting with the evacuation."

"_What do we do about those turbolasers?"_

"Take shots at them while you're heading for the surface. But don't delay, Admiral. The Mandalorians are covering us, our job is to evacuate the people."

* * *

Darth Leuenaar answered his holocom as he travelled back to Csilla with the rest of the First and Second Chiss Fleets. He had been standing on the bridge of his flagship – the _Advance_ – with his eyes closed, meditating silently on his battle with the three Jedi as the fleets travelled through the swirling brightness of hyperspace. As the holocom received the incoming transmission he opened his eyes, totally expressionless, and saw his master appear. As usual, his master was cloaked from head to toe, with only his lower face visible.

"_Lord Leuenaar, report."_

"Bilbringi and its shipyards have been totally destroyed, my master, and the Republic's Fifth Fleet has been ravaged. We now have an almost completely unobstructed path to the Core worlds," Leuenaar stated somewhat proudly.

"_I sense you aren't telling me everything."_

Leuenaar paused briefly, unwittingly allowing his master more insight than he intended. "The Jedi are stronger than we assumed. I could not kill them."

"_What of the Jedi Master, this Talus girl?"_

"She is powerful, my lord, much stronger than Darth Caeer ever said she'd be."

"_Is she a serious threat to us?"_

"Quite possibly, my lord. She was easily able to overwhelm me in lightsaber combat. I had to resort to using the Force heavily in order to stop them all."

"_Hmm…this news is troubling,"_ the Sith Master said, stroking his chin. _"I presumed that the idiot Caeer had simply become weak, but it seems he was telling the truth. Perhaps I should not have had him killed by your apprentice."_

"No, my lord. You made the correct decision. Darth Caeer was a lunatic and an egotist."

"_Nevertheless, this Jedi Master Talus should not be underestimated."_

"There is more, Master," Leuenaar continued. "I thought at first that it may have been my influence, but both Talus and the Twi'lek Jedi used the dark side of the Force while fighting me."

"_Are you certain of this?"_ the Sith Master asked, his tone of voice changing to one of utter surprise.

"Yes, Master, absolutely certain. My chest armouring was scorched by an ability I know to be called Force Destruction, and Talus used lightning on me."

"_Hmm…"_ the Master thought to himself for a moment. _"Is it possible to turn them fully?"_

"I don't think so," Leuenaar shook his head with surety. "They are merely practitioners of dark side abilities. Their allegiance appears to be unwaveringly Republic-oriented. I only drew this to your attention because I believe it makes them a greater threat."

"_Indeed, Lord Leuenaar, it does."_

"How have they managed to learn dark side abilities when they have only collected Jedi holocrons?"

"_My thoughts exactly. They must have learned them from observing Rengar and Caeer in battle. If this is the case, then they are a much greater threat than either of us could have predicted." _The Sith Master folded his arms across his chest, uttering another thoughtful _hmm_ before speaking again. _"Have Darth Vorcyl return to Csilla immediately. She has had the most contact with our Jedi friends, she may be able to shed more light on this for us."_

"It shall be done, my lord."

* * *

Kayla and Devin sat in the Council chambers, meditating silently together while they waited for Ashlyn, Liina and Lenny to arrive. Kayla had made sure Byz was busy with the younglings, teaching them to focus the Force into telekinetic control. As if a precursor to their coming discussion, the sky outside was filled with dark storm clouds, with lightning occasionally flickering in the distance, lighting up the Coruscant skyline. As the others arrived, Devin and Kayla opened their eyes and invited them to sit down.

"I'll activate the holocrons," Liina offered.

"No, not this time," Devin motioned for her to stay seated, then gestured at the doors to the chamber, closing them using the Force.

"I think I know what this is about," Ashlyn said, sitting back in her seat.

"And what exactly do you think this is about?" Kayla asked, not giving anything away in her expression or surface emotions.

"Well, you clearly don't want the holocron Masters present, and I know what happened during our fight with the Sith Lord inside the Bilbringi shipyards," the Togruta girl answered confidently.

"Kayla and I have been discussing this and meditating on it for some time now," Devin confirmed. "Our stance on the dark versus light debate needs to be addressed."

Liina and Lenny exchanged glances, then Lenny spoke up. "What's our current stance?"

"Everything we know about the old Jedi suggests that they were almost completely light side in their attitude towards the Force," Devin explained. "Some may even have called it dogmatic. In fact, from what we could gather, most people _did_ call it dogmatic, even blind. It wasn't until after the Galactic Civil War when Luke Skywalker was the Grand Master of the Order that marriage was even allowed."

"We've been taught that the dark side is fuelled by emotions and the light side avoids them entirely," Kayla continued. "The Jedi seem to always have been about compassion for all life, which is noble enough, and yet they disallowed any kind of attachment for fear of the loss of that attachment."

"I can understand that philosophy, even though I totally disagree with it," Lenny said. "It makes sense on a very basic level. If you want people to steer clear of dangerous emotions such as greed or anger, then deny them access to everything. That way, they'll never be able to get angry or greedy about anything."

"But to be angry or greedy is part of being a sentient being," Ashlyn argued. "Being completely passionless would only hold us back and isolate us from the very people we're trying to protect."

"We agree entirely, Ashlyn," Kayla said with her typically sweet smile. "The old Jedi have always had the same problems. Attempting to be these perfect, shining examples of the light side of the Force has always made them arrogant, detached, and almost compassionless in the eyes of the people."

"We want to make this clear," Devin continued. "This isn't about using 'dark side' Force abilities. It's about allowing ourselves the same emotions that normal people experience in everyday life. Going fully light side, as Kayla said, would just alienate us from everyone, and make us feel like we're better than everyone else."

"Similarly, going fully dark side would prevent us from seeing the bigger picture," Kayla added. "We can be a force for good without going to extremes. That's what makes us Jedi; being able to handle the responsibility of our power without it overwhelming or blinding us. Not how enlightened we perceive ourselves to be."

"I can see why you didn't want the holocron Masters here," Ashlyn grinned. "There's no way they'd agree to this."

"I say we continue not having the holocron Masters here," Liina said. "We have an opportunity to start a whole new Jedi Order, and do it properly, the way it always should have been."

"We're all in agreement then?" Kayla looked around at all four of the other Jedi, who were either nodding vigorously or smiling as well as nodding. "Perfect!" she gave Devin her cutest possible grin. "I told you they'd all agree. This has been such a productive session, I think we deserve to celebrate."

"Lenny, go fetch the kids, would you? They should enjoy the celebrations with us," Devin said.

"No problem, Dev. I'll get Creo and some ales too," Lenny smiled.


	11. The Betrayal

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 11 – The Betrayal**

Darth Vorcyl entered the Emperor's enormous chamber, her footsteps echoing off the distant walls loudly enough that she thought it might just be impossible to slip in unnoticed. There was plenty of cover such as pillars and statues to hide behind, but with the entire floor of the massive hall made of polished stone there was no possible way of even getting there, especially with the Emperor at the other end.

"Darth Vorcyl, how good of you to finally join us," the Emperor greeted her from his throne, making his displeasure at her lateness perfectly clear.

"My apologies for not arriving sooner, my lord, but I was unable to escape Ord Mantell in a manner of my choosing."

"We are aware of this already, my dear. It was by our design," Darth Leuenaar said as he stepped out from the shadows.

"Master?" Vorcyl asked, raising her Force awareness and defences.

"Your man inside the Republic, this Bothan Admiral named Bruodu," Leuenaar explained with a smug grin on his face, "he escaped from Ord Mantell and was killed at Bilbringi, was he not?"

"Master, I was betrayed, he followed my cruiser and didn't tell-"

"Silence!" the Emperor yelled, enhancing his voice with the Force. Vorcyl could feel his voice throughout her body, and she recoiled reflexively in fear. "We have information we need from you, Vorcyl."

"Of course, my lord," Vorcyl answered, lowering to one knee in penitence. "What do you wish to know?"

"The Jedi," he began, his voice almost a whisper, "Lord Leuenaar here believes they have placed themselves between the light and dark sides of the Force. I want your opinion, Vorcyl. Can they be turned? Made to serve us?"

"If they can be turned, it would need to be done by a much more powerful Sith than myself, my lord," Vorcyl answered, not daring to let even a shred of fear creep into her voice.

"Then what you are saying to me is that you are too weak to do this yourself?"

Vorcyl's body went rigid and she very nearly stammered. She could feel the cold flush of fear almost in slow motion. "No, my lord, but I have tried before and I w-"

"You were too weak," the Emperor interrupted. "You were too weak to keep Darth Caeer in line, you were too weak to defeat the Jedi, you were too weak to keep the Bothan under control, and now you dare answer me back?"

"But my lord, there were certain circumstances, reasons why these things happened, I can explain all of it!"

Darth Leuenaar scoffed. "You were warned about answering our Emperor back," he said calmly as he gripped Vorcyl's neck and lifted her from the ground, pulling her closer until she was only a few feet from the Emperor.

"You have ambition, young one," the Emperor said to her, speaking almost as though the words were being put directly into her brain, "but I am the master. You are nothing. Did you think that your little affair with Lord Leuenaar would go unnoticed? That your powers of seduction would possibly be a match for the dark side? Stupid child."

The Emperor stood and shot a blast of lightning at the Twi'lek as Leuenaar held her in place by her throat. Vorcyl screamed in pain, tears streaming down her face.

"My lord!" she squeaked helplessly to Leuenaar. "Please help me! For old times' sake?"

Leuenaar smiled wickedly at her, increasing the pressure of his grip. "You are nothing to me."

Suddenly they both let her go and she fell heavily to the stone floor, her crying making catching her breath all the more difficult.

"We were…lovers," she said in between sobs. "How…could you…do this?"

Leuenaar grinned again as the Emperor took a step towards her and knelt down in front of her. He began stroking her face, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "_You_ were the lover, child. Leuenaar was simply carrying out my will." He took her chin in his thumb and index finger, raising her face so she was looking into his eyes. "You have failed me for the last time, Vorcyl. You are weak; a blight on the Sith. Your 'lover' will succeed where you have failed, and he will start by removing you permanently."

The Emperor took his seat again as Leuenaar stepped forward, picking her back up by the throat. As she was raised several dozen feet in the air, nearly at the height of the chamber's domed transparisteel roof, Leuenaar squeezed tightly, attempting to break her neck. As Vorcyl's eyes bulged from her head, she tried desperately to think of a possible way out as she fought against Leuenaar's fierce Force Grip. He began to smash her head repeatedly into the transparisteel, laughing loudly from below as the Twi'lek wept and choked uncontrollably. Then she came up with an idea, just as the transparisteel began to crack. Drawing as much of the Force as she could, she pushed against the transparisteel roof, shattering it into thousands of pieces. As the splinters rained down on the chamber below, she grabbed hold of the durasteel frame that held the transparisteel panes in place just in time, as Leuenaar became too preoccupied with dodging falling shrapnel to keep holding her up. Realising she really had to hurry, she swung herself up and landed on the frame, leaping from beam to beam until she reached the more solid edge, and sprinted away towards the landing pad where she'd left the ship she'd commandeered on Ord Mantell. Hoping that the Chiss hadn't disabled it, she leapt the several hundred metres from the edge of the chamber's roof to the landing pad and boarded as quickly as she could. When the sublight drives successfully cranked into life she allowed herself a relieved sigh, then pushed the throttle all the way open and left Csilla before the Emperor could order the CEDF to stop her.

* * *

Byz felt someone entering the Jedi Temple through the Force as he was helping Devin teach the three new younglings some finer points on telekinesis. As he turned to ask if he could leave to check who had arrived, Devin was already giving him a mental prod to do just that. Byz nodded a response and excused himself, then took off down the hall towards the entrance. A tall uniformed man was walking towards him, and Byz recognised him as Jake Minvessen, former Rogue Squadron leader and current Commander-in-Chief of the Republic Armed Forces. With a smile, Byz ran up and bowed politely, then shook his hand.

"Admiral, you finally got some time off, did ya?" Byz grinned. "What brings you here today?"

"Nice to see you again, young Master Akkon," Minvessen answered politely. "I was wondering if Master Talus was around. There's some rumours going around that the Jedi have made some decisions lately."

"She's around here somewhere," Byz said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "I think she's downstairs in one of the duelling rooms with Master Valos. Master Rokanh's just around the corner teaching the younglings though, if you wanted to speak with him?"

Minvessen smiled, almost chuckling to himself as he remembered what it was like when he himself was only twelve years old.

"It's okay, I have some time. I wouldn't want to interrupt Master Rokanh while he's busy teaching, anyway. I'll go see Master Talus downstairs."

Byz bowed again and took his leave, returning to the courtyard outside where the younglings were holding heavy stones up with the Force while Devin pelted them with pebbles, attempting to teach them to keep their focus. Minvessen grinned, incredibly impressed with the talent these Jedi were already exhibiting at such a young age, and decided to stop and watch them for a few moments. While he observed, the youngest one – a short, stocky boy with wavy brown hair – dropped his stone as Byz re-joined the pebble throwing. Frustrated, the boy sat down on the paved courtyard floor and stared malevolently at the large stone.

"Don't be annoyed with yourself, Gavin," Devin said, sitting down next to him. "The more you get upset, the more likely you are to make a mistake, and the worse it's going to feel to you."

"But I can't do it!" Gavin yelled. "It's impossible! Those stupid rocks you're throwing are so annoying!"

"That's the point, kiddo," Devin smirked. "You're Mandalorian, so think of it this way: you know when you get hurt, and you just ignore it and get on with whatever you were doing like it's nothing?"

"Sure," Gavin answered with a shrug. "Happens all the time." Then it hit him, and he understood.

"That's it, you're getting it now," Devin smiled. "It's just like that. When you're a Jedi though, it's like being Mandalorian times twenty. You can ignore pretty much anything if you put your mind to it and practise enough."

Gavin smiled and immediately began to try again, while Byz was busy laughing and hurling pebbles at the oldest, a pretty young girl who looked to Minvessen to be Gavin's older sister. Grinning to himself and shaking his head, he made his way downstairs to the duelling rooms, trying to listen out for lightsabers. He didn't hear any, but instead found Ashlyn and Kayla engaged in unarmed combat. Ashlyn was on her back with Kayla's legs wrapped around her, across her lower abdomen in a vice-like grip. Ashlyn noticed Minvessen standing in the doorway, his eyes glued to the action. "Hi there, Admiral," she greeted him, just as the much smaller Kayla loosed a burst of strength, causing Ashlyn to grunt in pain and tap out. Minvessen's face went bright red as he watched.

"You want a turn?" Kayla offered with her usual sweet smile as she stood up and helped Ashlyn to her feet.

Minvessen blushed, shaking his head. "No, no, it's quite alright."

Kayla gave him her sweetest smile, deliberately making him feel more nervous. "You forget, I'm a Jedi. I know what you're thinking, Admiral."

"Then you know I'm here to talk about the rumours surrounding your latest decision," Minvessen said, attempting to change the subject.

Kayla looked at Ashlyn, who just giggled. "He's trying so hard to be professional."

Minvessen blushed again. "Are you two always this…" He paused, trying to think of the right word.

"Sexy? Playful?" Ashlyn offered, striking a pose, making Minvessen still more nervous and uncomfortable.

"Difficult, was what I was thinking."

"Alright, we'll be Jedi Generals for a little while then." Kayla sat down on a wooden bench bolted to the far wall and tapped the seat, gesturing for Minvessen to sit down next to her. "It's okay, I won't bite. We don't know each other well enough yet for that," she said with a wink. Hesitantly, he slowly walked over and sat down a sizable distance from the small Jedi. Ashlyn then walked over and sat down on the other side of him, so close she was almost on his lap. Kayla then shuffled over, so he was firmly wedged between the two girls. His face went bright red again.

"So, what rumours have you heard about us?" Ashlyn asked, deliberately leaning against him so the tip of her right lekku brushed his leg. She felt him shudder nervously a little, and through the Force she sensed his mind trying desperately to stick to the point of his visit.

"Uh… that you've decided to abandon the light side of the Force. But it's just a rumour that's been spreading throughout the military. I just wanted to know the truth for myself."

"Well we can assure you that it isn't true," Kayla responded. "We've decided not to follow the same 'light-side path' that the Jedi have historically gone down, but we're far from falling to the dark side."

"You probably won't even notice the difference," Ashlyn added. "The Jedi in the past have always been too caught up in avoiding the dark side to be able to fully utilise their abilities and responsibilities. We're just trying to bring the Jedi back into the galaxy on the right foot, instead of alienating everyone and getting caught up in our egos."

"So you're not gonna start butchering people and taking over the Republic?" Minvessen asked with one eyebrow raised. Kayla and Ashlyn laughed in response. "I'll take that as a 'no' then."

Kayla gave Ashlyn a knowing look, and the Togruta girl sat herself on Minvessen's lap, her legs dangling over Kayla and her right lekku draped over Minvessen's shoulder. She brushed her fingers down his cheek and whispered softly and breathily into his ear. "Butchery and mutiny aren't really our style, Jake." She then shifted subtly in his lap for a few seconds, pretending to get comfortable.

"No, I suppose it really isn't your style," he said, his eyes glued to Ashlyn's breasts only millimetres from his face. Ashlyn and Kayla then burst out laughing and stood up, leaving a very embarrassed Jake Minvessen trying to hide his shame.

"You've got nothing to worry about, Admiral," Ashlyn giggled. "We're definitely still on the Republic's side. And don't worry," she glanced down at his crotch, "we won't tell anyone."

"I'd appreciate that, Master Valos," he said, rearranging himself as he stood up, then left the room and went on his way. They were still giggling to each other as he walked away down the hall.

"Ashlyn, that was mean!"

"You weren't exactly a cold shower yourself, you little minx. '_You want a turn?_'"

"I suppose you're right. But next time I get to do the fun stuff."

As their voices trailed off, Minvessen couldn't help but think what the Jedi of the past might have thought of their behaviour, then dismissed the thought and decided he was just happy that they were still real people. Being a man whose family history was filled with very high ranking military men and women, he didn't necessarily like that some of the most difficult tasks with the highest responsibility were hinged on the efforts of two very young girls, but teasing and girliness aside, they were still in touch with reality. After all he'd read about the past Jedi, he had grave concerns that their presence would be another harbinger of doom for the Republic.

* * *

After attending another War Council meeting, Devin and Kayla returned to the Jedi Temple that afternoon to discuss what had transpired with the rest of the Jedi, including the younglings. They all gathered in one of the Temple's many courtyards and took seats, and Creo arrived soon afterwards with a refrigerated plasteel cylinder filled with drinks, passing ales around to Ashlyn, Liina, Devin, Kayla and Lenny, and sodas to the four younglings.

"Do ya mind if I listen in?" he asked. "I've never attended one o' these Jedi meeting's before. I promise I won't get in the way."

"Sure, Creo. Take a seat, man," Devin pulled up a chair and gestured at it.

"So what's the story with the Chiss?" Liina started the conversation. "Has there been any more movement?"

Kayla gulped down a mouthful of Weequay ale. "All that Intelligence has been able to find out is that for some reason they aren't defending Ansion and Adumar as much as we thought they would be."

"How so?" Lenny asked, intrigued.

"They have a very limited presence planet-side, and only a single small cruiser – _Carnage_ class – in orbit around both planets for security."

"Shouldn't we try to get it back then?" Liina asked the obvious question, which Devin shook his head to in response as he swallowed some ale.

"The War Council disagrees. They think it's a trap, and that even if we could take them, the Chiss have established themselves around that area too well for us to hold either system for long."

"Hang on a sec," Byz spoke up. "Wasn't the whole reason they captured those planets to make it easier for them to move in on the Core?" Devin and Kayla nodded in affirmation. "So why would they leave two key systems pretty much undefended unless they're gathering their forces for a major strike?"

"And the Padawan nails it in one," Devin grinned. "Good job, Byz."

"Which system are they going to hit though?" Lenny asked.

"The War Council thinks they're going after Ord Mantell," Kayla sighed.

Ashlyn scoffed loudly. "That makes no strategic sense whatsoever."

"We told them that," Devin shrugged, "even Minvessen agreed with us. But nearly all the Senatorial council members convinced the Chancellor that it's Ord Mantell they're after."

"So what happens now?" Liina asked with more than a hint of frustration evident in her voice. "They send a fleet and most of our best troops to defend an attack which probably isn't going to happen?"

"Precisely," Devin said grimly. "Despite the fact that nearly all our naval forces are busy defending other 'key worlds' that the Senate is afraid might be attacked."

"They already blew up Bilbringi when they could easily have captured it," Ashlyn said, putting her now empty bottle on the ground next to her. "My guess is that they're going to try and take a planet closer to the Core, for use as a staging ground for an attack. Somewhere unimportant and undefended."

"That somewhere sounds a lot like Borleias, in the Pyria system. That's where I'd go if I were a blue Chiss fella lookin' for a place near the Core to put my battle cruisers," Creo added.

"That's exactly where they're planning to go."

All nine Jedi and Creo turned around to see a stunningly beautiful Lethan Twi'lek, clutching her left arm, and clearly in quite a bad state emotionally and physically.

"You!" Lenny stood up, activating his orange saberstaff, followed almost instantly by Liina and Byz who activated their own sabers and stood ready.

"You're Darth Vorcyl," Devin said calmly, taking a sip of his ale. "Pleased to finally meet you properly. Why are you here?"

"It's not Darth Vorcyl anymore," the Twi'lek said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "It's just Runice now. Runice Arriah."

"Why are we even listening to this Sith…sleemo," Liina asked angrily.

Runice started sobbing, then collapsed to her knees and began to cry freely. Kayla and Devin gave each other a look, both sensing that she was genuinely distraught, and didn't mean them any harm. In fact, Kayla could swear that Liina's insult had genuinely hurt the girl's feelings. She got up out of her chair and walked calmly over to Runice, who looked up at Kayla with pure honesty and offered her saberstaff.

"Here, take it. I don't want it anymore. I don't want to use it ever again."

"Don't trust her! She's clearly trying to get us to lower our guard!" Lenny pleaded.

Kayla gave him a look of scorn. "Use your feelings, Lenny. She's not here to hurt anyone." She helped Runice to her feet as Devin gestured for everyone to put their sabers away. She led her to a chair near her own and inched closer to her, just as the young Mandalorian girl Ferros got up and came over.

"You're too pretty to be upset, Miss Runice," the young girl said, taking Runice's hand. "You can tell us Jedi what's wrong, we're really nice. Even Master Tanski."

Runice chuckled as she sobbed. "You're very sweet, young one. Are you all this sweet?"

Ferros' brother Gavin then stood up and fetched an ale from the plasteel cylinder. "Even Master Tanski," he replied with a warm smile, offering the ale to her.

She looked at Kayla as if to ask if it was okay, to which Kayla nodded happily. "Okay then, here goes," she began, taking a deep breath and wiping tears from her cheeks. "I made a very big mistake once. I was a pirate, and my crew and I were out looking for a buried cache of weapons, about three years ago. We found it, but buried with the cache was this red cube thing."

"A Sith holocron," Kayla said.

Runice nodded. "That's right. But I didn't know that at the time. Just as we found it we were slaughtered by a Chiss named Leuenaar. You'd know him as the Sith who killed all your men at Bilbringi." Kayla sensed Liina tensing up at the thought, and sent her a mental prod to calm herself and let Runice speak. "He didn't kill me. He said he liked the look of me, and that if I wanted to live I had to follow him back to Csilla. So he took me and the holocron and we met the Emperor."

"Emperor?" Ashlyn asked. "There's an Emperor?"

"Yes. There's a lot you don't know. I'll explain everything in time, I promise you."

"Runice, please continue," Devin said, using the Force to emphasise his friendly tone of voice. "What happened when you met the Emperor?"

Runice, still sobbing a little, took a sip of the ale Gavin had brought her, then continued. "He said that I could use the Force, and that I'd become a Sith Lord, or they'd kill me right there in that chamber. He promised me power and riches; he said that he'd teach me how to get whatever I wanted from anyone in the galaxy. After I was taught how to use the Force, I became Darth Caeer's apprentice. Leuenaar told me of the Emperor's hatred of Caeer, and so I began having a relationship with Leuenaar, thinking I could get on his good side and replace Caeer. I was given a special assignment to convert a Republic Admiral, and have him try and destroy the military from the inside."

"That explains a lot," Devin admitted, taking another swig of ale.

"I even developed a technique that no one had ever thought of before," Runice continued, "one that I could use to convert Bruodu and take Caeer by surprise and overwhelm him. I've even used it on some of you guys before."

"I remember," Lenny said with a frown. "How could I forget?"

"I'm sorry, Master Tanski. I never intended to use it on anyone else, but Caeer found out about it and demanded that I use it on yourself and Master Talus," Runice started crying again, remembering the incidents with regret.

"It's okay, Runice," Kayla said, putting a hand on her knee and squeezing it gently. "Keep going."

She took another sip and wiped her tears away, then continued. "After that, Leuenaar told me to kill Caeer, so I did. That's basically when things got bad. _I_ got bad. I thought I was indestructible, like no one could possibly hurt me anymore. I started believing all the stuff I was saying, all the stuff Leuenaar and the Emperor were telling me. I actually believed that the dark side was stronger, and that the Jedi had to be stopped.

"After Ord Mantell, I couldn't find a way to get home again. I didn't know this at the time, but Leuenaar had told the crew of the little cruiser you saw – the one Bruodu followed into hyperspace – to abandon me. I had to use the damaged assault landing craft I arrived in from the cruiser and basically fall to the surface of Ord Mantell, then steal a ship to get back to Csilla." Runice began crying again as she remembered the story's details. Kayla leant in close and hugged her. "I threatened to kill the family that owned the ship. They were so scared. I destroyed their home, then knocked them all out and stole the ship."

Runice became completely overwhelmed then, crying uncontrollably. Kayla tried her best to make her feel as comfortable as possible, even sending comforting feelings to her through the Force. Then all of the Jedi began sending comforting feelings to her, even Lenny.

"Maybe she really isn't lying," he admitted.

"I'm sorry," Runice said, trying her best to compose herself. "I'll finish my story."

"Take your time, sweetie," Ashlyn said as pleasantly as she could.

"When I got back to Csilla, the Emperor said I was weak, that I'd failed him. He said…" she paused as her emotions again got the better of her. "He said that Leuenaar had been playing me. That he used me, all this time. I was just a pawn in the Emperor's game. I've been such a fool!"

Kayla and Ashlyn knelt down next to Runice and hugged the girl as she cried and cried.

"I…never want to do that…again…" she spoke between sobs. "I don't want to…hurt people. My whole life…I've been hurting people. My whole life! So many poor…defenceless people!" she half screamed, totally distraught to the point of barely being able to breathe properly, let alone speak. "I want to make…to make up for it. I don't…want to…to lie, or threaten, or, or hurt…anyone…anymore. Ever again!" She took Kayla and Ashlyn's hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "I'm so, so sorry…Master Talus…for everything. You're good people…good people. You do…good things…for the galaxy, and I…I hurt you. I hurt…you all. How could I do that?! I hurt good…good people. I wanted you to…to know…that I'm so, so sorry. About everything. If you can't…can't forgive me, then…I…I under…stand."

All nine Jedi started looking at each other, feeling sorry for the poor Twi'lek girl. Kayla sent Devin a mental prod, thinking of time, which he nodded to her that he understood.

"Runice, why don't you stay with me tonight at my place? You can help teach the younglings with Byz and Liina tomorrow, and Devin and I will talk about this whole thing."

Runice smiled, feeling truly welcome for the first time in many, many years. "Thankyou…Master Talus," she said, still sobbing a little. "I'd…like that…very much."


	12. The Plot

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 12 – The Plot**

"Today we're going to teach you a bit about offensive Force techniques," Liina addressed the three younglings Gavin, Ferros and Xander. "And to make things extra difficult for you, Byz will be sparring with you at the same time."

Ferros and Xander grinned excitedly at each other while Gavin's expression drooped slightly, the boy's lack of confidence showing through very clearly. Byz placed several large stones on the ground in front of them, each weighing at least twice their bodyweight and as large as a footlocker.

"You'll notice we've set up a target behind us," Byz said, pointing at a specially reinforced ferrocrete wall in the courtyard with a circular scoring system painted on it. "The idea is that while sparring with me, you'll hurl a stone into the wall as accurately as you can. Obviously, the more accurate you are, the better you'll do. But be careful; I'll be taking it easy on you, but not _that_ easy. Our sabers are set to low power, but they still hurt if you get hit."

"Who wants to go first?" Liina asked, to which Xander raised his hand immediately.

Runice smiled, already enjoying the more gentle and constructive methods the Jedi employed in their training. Quickly scanning the three younglings, she sensed quite a lot of pride in Xander, quiet confidence from Ferros, but utter bewilderment and doubt from Gavin. "Gavin, how about you go first?"

The young boy froze and stared at Runice in horror. "I-I think Xander's a good choice. He put his hand up and everything."

"Don't underestimate yourself, kid," she said with a smile, squatting down in front of him and putting her hands on his shoulders. "I can sense the strength in you. You doubt yourself needlessly. Just give it a go, we'll take it from there. You have nothing to worry about."

Liina smiled to herself, impressed with how Runice was so quickly adapting to the kindness and positive reinforcement the Jedi used for their training. _She should have been with us from the start,_ she thought to herself. _She could have been magnificent by now._

Gavin stepped forward, igniting his white saber as Byz stood at the ready with his yellow blade. "Whenever you're ready, Gav," Byz said.

Gavin began slashing away, using what Ashlyn had taught him of Shien form, as Byz defended effortlessly before going on the attack. Gavin began backing away, conceding ground until he reached the stone he was supposed to hurl at the wall. However, he diverted too much attention to it, allowing Byz to bat his saber away to the side and strike him on the wrist. Gavin yelped as Byz's saber shocked his wrist upon impact and the stone fell harmlessly to the ground with a loud _thud_.

"I told you Xander should have gone first. I'm useless at this," Gavin sulked, crossing his arms and turning away.

Runice approached him again, squatting down in front of him once more. "Hey, that's garbage. You're a Jedi, you're not useless at _anything_," she said comfortingly. "My old master told me I was too weak, he even tried to kill me because of it. But I escaped, and I came here." She stood up and took the boy's hands. "'Weak' is just a word, young one. It only means whatever meaning you give to it. Your mind is very powerful that way. If you believe you're gonna fail, then you've already lost. How did you know you would fail before you even tried it?"

Gavin looked up at her, trying to form the sentence before he spoke it. Runice shook her head.

"You see? You're doing it right now. You _didn't_ know you'd fail, but you told yourself you would, so you failed. You think Xander would do any better if he thought he was going to fail before he even tried?"

Gavin shook his head, looking back down at the floor.

"You know what you need to do," Runice continued, pointing at the stone. "_Know_ where the stone is, where the target is. Know _what_ the stone is. Know where Byz is and what he's doing. Feel it all through the Force. You can sense it all right now, can't you?"

Gavin nodded again, looking back at Runice this time.

"So why is it any different when it's happening? Your senses can detect all of that already; you've got the ability to do it. All we're doing here is showing you that it's your _mind_ that's in the way of your success," she tapped the boy's forehead as she spoke.

"Is that true, Master?" Ferros asked her. "We can already do that all that stuff?"

Runice grinned. "Of course it is. Everyone is part of the Force. Your bodies may constantly be growing, but so are your minds. That's why it's so difficult when you're younger. For the first part of your life, you grow accustomed to seeing the world the same way everyone else does. Unlearning that can be very daunting; it's difficult to believe. But if you begin to understand how the Force binds everything together – everything from inanimate objects like stones to living creatures and all the different bits that make them what they are – you can learn exactly how the Force can be used to affect those things. That's why a Force user can also do things like the Jedi Mind Trick – not just moving things around in the air. That's just the beginning," she grinned.

The three youngsters were enamoured by Runice's speech, thinking of the various possibilities of their abilities with the Force even as she was speaking. Gavin began to smile brightly as he started to understand the truth of the matter. "So as long as I know it can work, then I can do it?"

"It's not as simple as that," Runice explained, being careful not to inspire too much hope into them, lest they fail again and become more doubtful of themselves. "But yes, that's the basic gist of it. The Force has no limits."

"Let's try it again, Gavin," Liina said. "Whenever you're ready."

Byz dropped into Soresu guard as he waited for Gavin to strike. After a few moments of concentration, Gavin began swiping and slashing away, this time completely on the attack, making Byz concede the ground he had made in Gavin's last attempt. Even as he was attacking fearsomely, Liina's jaw dropped in disbelief as the huge stone was hurled at lightning speed straight into the centre of the target. All six Jedi present began applauding; Gavin was stoked. Grinning away, he started to cheer, then ran over and hugged Runice.

"You see? I knew you could do it, young one."

"Thanks, Master Arriah," he said, releasing his hug and looking up at the Twi'lek with utter happiness. "You're a really, really good teacher."

"Master Arriah," Runice laughed. "I like the sound of that."

As Xander and Ferros both had their turns under the guidance of Byz, Liina stood next to Runice and admired the talents of the three newest members of the Order.

"You're a natural, Runice," Liina smiled. "I wish you'd been with us from the start."

Runice sighed. "I just hope I can make up for all I've done wrong. If teaching these kids how to do it properly from the beginning is part of that, then I'll give it everything I've got."

Liina turned to face her, taking her hands in her own. "I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't want you to feel like you owe us anything." She stroked Runice's hands gently with her thumbs. "Deep down, I think you've always been a good person, trapped in a world that just happened to surround you with the wrong groups. If the Jedi can help you to be the kind of person you always should have been, then it's not just our responsibility, it's our honour." She leaned forward and gave Runice a tight hug. "It's _my_ honour to know that you're with us now. I want you to know that."

A tear rolled down Runice's cheek as she took Liina's hands again. "Thanks, Liina. You're a really terrific girl, and I know we'll be great friends. I won't let anyone down, I promise you."

As Runice finished speaking, Kayla and Devin walked into the courtyard with happy expressions.

"Good to see you guys all getting along so well," Devin said. "Sorry to interrupt your class, Master Hriyek, but I'm afraid the War Council has been called, and they've asked us if Miss Arriah could come along with us."

Runice shrugged at Liina, who just smiled and said 'good luck'. The three of them then made their way to the Senate district together.

* * *

"Ah, the Jedi have arrived," Senator Golan smiled warmly. "And they've brought Miss Arriah along with them as requested." He approached Runice and greeted her politely with a peck on the cheek. "Thankyou for coming."

"Thankyou for having me, Senator," Runice smiled in return.

"Now, down to business," Chancellor Grennar said with a stern expression on his face. "I won't prance around the issue with typical senatorial garnish. As we said in our last meeting, we believe that the world of Ord Mantell is under very serious threat of invasion. The time has come for us to decide what actions we are to take."

"If I may ask," Devin spoke up, "where has this information come from?"

A senator at the opposite end of the table to where Kayla, Devin and Runice sat suddenly cleared his throat. "This information has come directly from Republic Intelligence stationed in and around Ord Mantell itself. We have reason to believe that the stunt they pulled before destroying our shipyards at Bilbringi was a ploy to convince us that there was no threat to the system."

"With all due respect, Senator Jarvis, are you not the representative of Ord Mantell?" Admiral Minvessen countered.

"I hardly think that matters, Admiral. Facts are facts."

"Oh but I think it does matter," Minvessen slightly raised his voice. "Why in the name of the Force would the Chiss possibly want to take Ord Mantell? It has no strategic value at all, it has very little in the way of resources, it's not a particularly ideal place to strike from-"

"I won't have this said of my home planet," Jarvis interrupted. "In fact, I dare say that you are verging on treason, _Admiral_ Minvessen."

Minvessen threw his hands up in defeat. "Why do we bother having a War Council if all we're going to do is protect the economic interests of a bunch of senators? We've got all our fleets tied up defending worlds that, frankly, don't matter at all in these times. I mean, Commenor? Cato Neimoidia? Kothlis? Bothawui? All these planets are on the opposite side of the _galaxy_ to where the Chiss are coming from. If they are invading us at all – which in itself is a strange thing for the Chiss to do – then their aim is obviously to take out the Core worlds and assume control of the entire Republic. How are they going to achieve that if their resources are tied up taking out planets like those? And more to the point, how are we going to defend if we don't even have a single fleet left that isn't being wasted guarding these other planets? We don't have enough ships, pilots or officers to put a fleet on every Republic world."

"No one is suggesting that we station a fleet on every Republic world, Admiral," Jarvis said calmly. "But it seems clear to me and everyone else here that Ord Mantell is the next target and must be defended appropriately. Would you leave us unprotected so the Chiss can assume control without struggle?"

Minvessen shook his head and laughed. "Why am I even here? I have no say in the use of my own Armed Forces at all. If you want me to resign from my post, you're going about it the right way."

"That won't be necessary, Admiral Minvessen," Grennar said authoritatively. "Senator Jarvis, I would advise you to speak with caution when addressing a member of this council. You are here as an advisor, and can be replaced. I for one disagree with you entirely, but as I am simply another voice on this council, I will proceed with diplomatic measures, as this council was first created to do."

"What would you advise, Miss Arriah?" Senator Golan asked calmly. "You were until recently a member of the CEDF, perhaps you can advise us of our enemy's plans?"

Runice cleared her throat nervously and her face began to flush. "Well, firstly, I can assure you that neither the Chiss nor the Sith have plans to go anywhere near Ord Mantell. As far as I'm aware, it was just a feint to draw you away from Bilbringi and nothing more. I'd be more worried about Borleias. That's where I was told would be the next target before I escaped the Sith's attempts on my life."

"Borleias?" Jarvis mocked. "Rubbish. Intelligence has produced no evidence to suggest that Borleias is under any threat at all. Ord Mantell is the only system currently under threat of invasion that isn't protected by its own fleet."

"This is a waste of my time," Minvessen said, getting up to leave.

"Sit down, Admiral. This council isn't over yet," Chancellor Grennar warned him.

"We have a defector from the Chiss Ascendancy _in our presence_ and she has told us categorically that Borleias is the target, _not_ Ord Mantell, and this Council still wants to waste time putting the last spare fleet in place there? Why bother having anyone in my position at all if it's just going to be senators bickering over who has the most to lose? You clearly don't need me, and I refuse to be the one to take the blame for this decision when Borleias is crushed by the Chiss. Because I assure you, that _is_ what's going to happen. Does the name 'General Madine' mean nothing to you people? He was once a defector himself, and rose to become one of the greatest strategists the Republic has ever seen. This young girl has risked her life to bring us this information directly from the Chiss themselves, and you would choose to ignore her counsel completely and utterly, simply because you would rather protect your own world ahead of the Republic? You're selfish, Jarvis. Selfish and insane."

"The Jedi agree with Admiral Minvessen," Devin announced. "I don't know where or how Intelligence has gathered its evidence, but our very own defector has told us what to expect. I think it would be unwise not to take her counsel into consideration."

"She's a _defector_," Jarvis argued. "What makes you think they told her anything useful at all? Perhaps they told her what they_ wanted_ us to hear and then let her go. I can't trust a lying Chiss lackey over our own hard evidence."

"With all due respect, Senator," Runice said with a frown. "I'm no lackey. Secondly, they planned to kill me; they didn't let me go, I escaped. Thirdly, they are Sith. They don't tolerate weakness, and weak is exactly what they perceived me to be. They wouldn't change their plans just to thwart me, they don't consider me a threat-"

"I won't listen to this nonsense any longer," Jarvis interrupted. "We have hard evidence from our own Republic Intelligence, whom we can trust," he glared at Runice. "Let's put this to a vote and be done with it, so I can assure my people that the Republic hasn't abandoned them like Admiral Minvessen and the Jedi seem to be happy to do. And to be sure that they don't have any misgivings about the Jedi, may I suggest that they send a representative with the fleet to Ord Mantell? Perhaps our 'defector', Miss Arriah."

Minvessen looked across at Kayla, his face scrunched up in disbelief. Kayla shrugged in dismissal, not wishing to be angered by any of the proceedings.

"Hang on, you can't just send her to Ord Mantell like that. She's only just arrived! She doesn't even have any official standing with the Jedi yet! This is outrageous!" Minvessen's face was red and inflamed with anger.

"I think it's perfectly acceptable," came the voice of another Senator. "If she wishes to prove herself a valuable and reliable asset to the Republic, then she should make herself useful and assist with the coming invasion of Ord Mantell."

"But we don't even know that there's going to _be_ an invasion of Ord Mantell! And this poor girl has come halfway across the galaxy, fleeing from the _Sith Lords_, fleeing for her _life_, and come to us for asylum. We're really suggesting that she should be made to earn the right to asylum by standing on the bridge of the _Alderaanian_, waiting for a non-existent attack?"

"We need to know we can trust her," Jarvis answered smugly.

"No offense intended, Senator Jarvis," Kayla said firmly, "but whether or not we can trust Miss Arriah has nothing at all to do with anyone but the Jedi. This is our business, and we would ask you kindly to mind your own. She's only here because Chancellor Grennar asked us if she could come along and provide some intelligence from the enemy's perspective."

"The Jedi serve the Republic, do they not?" Jarvis countered. "In which case, it _is_ my business as a member of this Council. In fact, I propose that we have a Jedi stationed within every fleet."

"That's absurd," Minvessen argued, his face becoming redder and redder with each inflammatory comment. "We have more fleets than we do Jedi. We're lucky they're even here for us at all, the way you all carry on."

"Enough of this. Let's put it to a vote so we can see who's really in charge of this," Jarvis said with another smug grin, looking directly at Minvessen.

"Okay then, but I would urge you to consider caution, Senator. You are coming very close to being banned from this Council. And furthermore, I will pull rank here and personally reject your request to have Miss Arriah placed anywhere by anyone's authority. The Jedi are not yours to command, Senator. They do indeed serve the Republic, but they are independent of it nonetheless. They will make any and all calls on how they wish to serve. Consider yourself extremely lucky to have their assistance at all." Chancellor Grennar then addressed the entire Council. "Key in your votes now, then, on the issue of providing a fleet in defence of the planet Ord Mantell."

After a few moments all the votes were in. The Chancellor leaned forward in his chair to read the results, then leant back again to make the announcement. "Fifteen votes for, six votes against. Admiral, you'll need to inform the third fleet that they are to be stationed at the hyperlane junctions near Ord Mantell. Senator Jarvis, inform all aboard the _Jubilee Wheel_ to be ready to evacuate to the surface and everyone planet-side to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice."

"You will need to find someone else to inform the third fleet, Chancellor," Minvessen stood and announced. "I've just resigned from my position as Commander of the Republic Armed Forces, effective immediately. The documents will be on your desk in the morning."

Grennar's face went almost white with shock. Kayla and Devin both looked at each other, exchanging knowing expressions. Neither were surprised at all.

"Uh, very well, Admiral. If that's what you want, of course. I don't suppose there is any way we can talk about this and come to some form of agreement?" Grennar asked.

"Not a chance, sir," Minvessen shook his head firmly. "I've been considering it for some time, this 'discussion' with Senator Jarvis was simply the last straw. I've made my decision."

"Very well…I guess I'll need to tell the third fleet myself then. Dismissed, everyone."

Kayla approached Minvessen as he was leaving and grabbed him by the arm, gently pulling him back in. She walked up to Grennar with Minvessen, with Devin and Runice in tow after everyone else had left.

"Yes, my dear," he said warmly. "What can I do for my favourite Jedi?"

"You can authorise trips to Borleias and Ansion," she answered.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask," he chuckled. "So who's going?"

"Well I thought I'd go to Ansion with Miss Arriah here," Devin said, "just to scope out their defences and see if we can formulate a plan to get them back."

"I'll take Jedi Valos to Borleias and see if we can help out the people there, and Jedi Tanski can scout out the surrounding hyperlanes," Kayla added.

"I'm guessing you have a plan for Jake then too, right?"

Minvessen looked at Kayla with a puzzled expression, his left eyebrow raised in confusion. "I was thinking that our current War Council seems insufficient to direct our military," Kayla explained. "Admiral Minvessen is perfectly capable of making decisions, but is being consistently thwarted – as he explained earlier – by the Senators and their constant misuse of the Navy. We don't have a single spare cruiser or squadron of fighters available if the Chiss attack. We haven't considered the possibility that we may actually be wrong."

"Unfortunately, this is a democracy," Grennar sighed. "While we have Senators representing the interests of the people, they will always be allowed to have their two creds on these issues."

"That's why our plan is to have the people of the Republic go over the Senators' heads," Kayla gave Grennar a sweet smile.

"What did you have in mind, Master Talus?"

"Admiral Minvessen and Jedi Hriyek can make a joint public holonet announcement explaining about the impending Chiss attack, and that we have no fleet left to counter it because they're all tied up. Basically, paraphrasing what Jake said earlier on. Then we have Jedi Hriyek speak on our behalf, saying that we support Admiral Minvessen and the proper use of the military etcetera, and the crowd goes wild."

"I see," Grennar said. "Then we force the issue of military command to the Senate, and give Jake his power back."

"Exactly," Devin smiled.

"Well, it's a good thing that I completely disagree with both Senator Jarvis and the policies of my predecessor, then isn't it? What are your thoughts, Admiral?"

Minvessen grinned, stroking his chin. "I think it just might work."

* * *

Jake and Liina arrived at the steps to the Senate Building at the pre-arranged time with moments to spare. Jake glanced at Liina, who had decided to wear black Jedi robes for the announcement. She smiled at him warmly and nodded, urging him towards the dais. A huge crowd of holonet news crews and the general public had gathered to hear the announcement, penned as a 'significant issue concerning the continuing security and welfare of the Republic'. Naturally, a lot of the crowd was made up of people who had something to do with the previous invasions of Adumar and Ansion, whether they had been moved from the planets directly or knew people who had. All were waiting in tense apprehension of the announcement being made by Jake, who Chancellor Grennar had managed to convince to stay on as Admiral at least until they knew whether their actions would have any benefit. He stepped up to the podium and eyed the crowd, forcing a serious expression to get himself in the proper mood.

"People of the Republic," he began. "As most of you will already be aware, Republic Intelligence and the Armed Forces have information that suggests the Chiss Expansionary Defence Force will soon be launching another attack on a Republic world. We cannot allow this to happen, naturally, and would do everything in our power to prevent it. Unfortunately, due to a requirement put in place by the previous Chancellor, the Armed Forces have had their hand forced by certain members of the Senate in the War Council. The vast majority of the Senate representatives on this council have voted to place our last remaining fleet in defence of Ord Mantell, which you will be aware has recently been host to a Chiss feint manoeuvre."

Minvessen quickly looked through the crowd, and saw that many were becoming very interested in his speech. Some had already begun to get angry at the news; exactly what he and Liina had hoped for.

"Several of us, the Jedi included, have reason to believe that Ord Mantell has no strategic value to the Chiss whatsoever. We are not saying that it is an unimportant world; far from it. Ord Mantell is a very important Republic world. But as commander-in-chief of the Republic Armed Forces, I can inform you all that the fleet that is being placed in protection of Ord Mantell is our last remaining fleet. We have no more ships, pilots, officers or soldiers left to defend anywhere else.

"Due to a bill that was passed by the previous Chancellor through the Senate, we are required to put all military concerns to a vote in the War Council, effectively rendering my position pointless. The reason I bring this information to the forefront here today is not just to pass the blame onto the Senators when the Chiss attack somewhere other than Ord Mantell. Of course, regardless of the Senators' decision on where to place the Republic's fleets, any mistakes made will be blamed on myself, as commander-in-chief, despite all decisions being subject to a majority vote.

"No, the reason I bring this information to you today is to highlight the mistakes of our former Chancellor, and to ask for your support – the very people we are trying to protect – in changing this law back to a more conventional and highly successful model employed by many of our predecessors. The military is a very serious organisation, and has a very serious obligation to protect the people of the Republic. Already we have lost the three great worlds of Ansion, Bilbringi and Adumar to the Chiss because our fleets were tied up defending planets such as Bothawui, Kothlis and Commenor to name but a few. I am not here to suggest that these planets are not important to us, I am only suggesting that the military needs to be used to protect our worlds, not to discourage aggressors from attacking, only for them to attack different worlds instead. With three planets already gone, we need to be proactive, not reactive, if we're going to stop the Chiss."

By now, the crowd had become almost rabid. Liina stretched her senses across them all, and found that the mood was very much in Jake's favour. Placards had been raised all over with slogans such as 'The Senate has no place in our military', and 'Down with greed'. Jake thanked the crowd, then turned to Liina and grinned widely.

"I think it's safe to say that our plan is working, Liina. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I think you should have been a politician with those public speaking skills," she teased, "or an activist."

"Let's just see how you do, first," Jake nudged her. "It's your turn, Jedi."

Liina waited for the crowd to settle a bit before she began speaking. The crowd was reacting exactly the way they had anticipated it would, and Chancellor Grennar had assured them that this was exactly the response needed to force a vote in the Senate. As spokesman for the Senator from Coruscant approached Liina and Jake suddenly, advising them that the situation was the same across nearly all the Core worlds and Colonies, and in just about every place that the holonet announcement was being shown. Crowds all over the galaxy had been formed on the steps of their government buildings to listen and protest.

"As a member and representative of the Jedi Order," Liina started, "I am here to publically show our support for Admiral Minvessen. As you may not be aware, we have recently had a member of the CEDF defect to our cause. She has risked life and limb to come among us and join our struggle, and has brought with her information that suggests that Ord Mantell is under no threat from the Chiss at all. Unfortunately, due to the very constraints we are here to highlight, we have been unable to act on this intelligence. So on behalf of the Republic Armed Forces and the Jedi Order, I would please ask you to protest peacefully and strongly for the ratification of our Military Control bill, before any more planets and people are left to the same fate that was forced on Ansion, Adumar and Bilbringi. The military should be controlled by the military, not the Senate. Thankyou so much for listening to us both here today, and may the Force be with you all."


	13. The Probe

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 13 – The Probe**

"This is an outrage! These powers were issued for use in times of war lawfully by Chancellor Blaenorol. You have no right to revoke them now!"

Senator Jarvis spoke passionately in the special session of congress called by Chancellor Grennar after the overwhelming public response incited by Jake Minvessen and Liina Hriyek's speeches only days earlier. Devin and Liina were in attendance at the behest of Senator Makrus Golan of Ansion, and both frowned at the words spewing forth from Jarvis' mouth.

"This law was put in place for a very good reason: to prevent the warmongering antics of the Republic Military from becoming a liability to us when we are most in need of clear-headed thinking. This proposed bill will destroy all that Chancellor Blaenorol fought so hard for. It is simply a plot for revenge started by Admiral Minvessen so that he can control the entire Armed Forces and doom us all on a whim. Our defence must remain in the hands of the Senate; the true representatives of the people. How many young sentients will die for no good reason if Minvessen has total control? I shudder at the thought, my friends."

Senator Golan activated his repulsorpod, which unhooked from the wall and floated into the centre of the Great Convocation Chamber nearby Jarvis' pod. "This law," he began, "was put in place after the Corellian Border Skirmish more than ten standard years ago, to prevent the then-Corellian commander-in-chief from using the Republic Military inappropriately. The current Chiss War is a galaxy-wide confrontation, affecting many worlds, not just the interests of the few. This bill does not propose that control of the Armed Forces be given over in its entirety to Admiral Minvessen as the honourable Senator Jarvis of Ord Mantell would have you believe. It is, in fact, only asking that he have some measure of control. The Admiral's position is being made effectively redundant as the law currently stands."

"If this bill is passed," Jarvis argued, "then worlds such as Bothawui and Commenor will fall to the Chiss with no opposition at all. Is that what we want? To leave our worlds undefended so that the Chiss may walk through the galaxy taking what they will?"

The Senator from Commenor, a wiry man with long, greying hair named Serluss, then activated his pod and floated out to the centre of the chamber. "Bothawui and Commenor are well known to not be under any threat from the Chiss at all, Senator Jarvis," he argued. "I did not have any say in the placement of the fourth fleet around my home world, nor would I choose to have them stationed there anyway. What could the Chiss possibly want from the Bothans or the Commenorians? The placement of the fleets on planets such as these are simply to protect the economic interests of people such as yourself. Not to provide any necessary security. I can assure you that all this law has achieved for my people is an extra checkpoint before anyone can go in or out of the system. It's a major inconvenience, nothing more."

"I don't know where you get your information from, Serluss, but your world is under grave threat of invasion, as are the Bothans-"

"Then perhaps the Senator from Ord Mantell would like to produce this evidence for the entire Senate to peruse?" Serluss calmly suggested.

"I hardly think this is necessary or wise given the immediacy of the threat we face," Jarvis countered.

Senator Golan laughed heartily. "Perhaps I have missed something, or perhaps I know nothing about this war or the immediacy of its threat to our various ways of life, given that my own home world has already fallen victim due to the incompetence of this ridiculous law; but I think that proof is highly regarded when transporting the last of our fleets to a world that to all intents and purposes appears to be under no threat whatsoever. Questions will, and have been, raised."

"The fact that your little world has already fallen is proof enough of the importance of this law. What if the Chiss had taken Corellia first? Or Cato Neimoidia? Luckily they are protected from attack by our Military Forces."

"Which could have been available for the defence or Ansion or Adumar or even Bilbringi had they not been stationed around Bothan planets many parsecs from where the fighting is actually taking place!"

"The only great loss there was Bilbringi and its shipyards-"

"The Senate does not recognise the representative from Ord Mantell at this time," Grennar's aide interrupted.

"Be careful, Senator Jarvis. You are very quickly becoming purely argumentative, not to mention offensive, to some of the Senators and indeed the people you profess to be representing. One more outburst and I will have you removed," Grennar said. "Continue, Senator Golan."

"Thankyou, Chancellor," Golan continued as requested. "As I was saying, this bill does not suggest that total control of the military be placed under the command of Admiral Minvessen; the placement of certain fleets will still be subject to a vote amongst the War Council – which I will remind you all is largely consisted of various Senators. Admiral Minvessen will simply be given the casting vote and the ability to recommend and enforce strategies. His position as commander-in-chief will still be determined by the War Council, not to mention the Chancellor himself. We cannot continue to place all our defences around worlds that simply aren't under threat. How many more systems will fall before we realise that we must be proactive in this struggle?"

"If there are no more speakers, I will put this bill to a vote immediately," Grennar announced. When no more Senators came forward, he asked the Senate to cast their votes. After several moments, the results were tallied.

"The result of the vote on the bill put forward by Senator Makrus Golan of Ansion determining the reorganisation of control of the Republic Armed Forces has ruled in favour of the commander-in-chief reassuming tactical control," Grennar's aide announced.

Devin and Liina grinned at each other as Golan turned to face them with a look of defiance on his face. "We have won a great victory here today, my friends," Golan said happily. "Our plan has worked, now it's time to fight this war properly."

"And we'll start by getting your planet back," Devin said, putting a hand on the Ansionian's shoulder.

"Yes, hopefully with some proof from yourself and Miss Arriah, we'll finally be able to put a dent in the Chiss' war effort."

* * *

"So what's the verdict?" Ashlyn asked as Devin and Liina returned to the Jedi Temple.

Devin just gave a crooked smile in response, and Ashlyn cheered happily.

"You must be pretty pleased about this, Jake," Liina said, turning to Minvessen.

"Well, it's a start. I just wish it had always been this way. But it's a long road ahead, and unfortunately we can't withdraw the order for the Third Fleet unless we get some compelling evidence."

"We'd better get to work, then," Devin grinned. "Don't worry, Jake. Lenny, Kayla and Ashlyn will take care of this. I'm positive they can get some proof. I just hope they can do it in time to prevent the Chiss from getting the jump on us."

"Speakin' of which," Creo suddenly appeared, covered in oil and grease, "I've finished tinkerin' with your X-Wings. They're now fitted with some advanced stealth tech, similar to what we found on those old schematics that got dug up, only better, 'cause I did it. No compromise on speed or rigidity, and no way in hell anyone will ever see ya comin'."

"You're fantastic, Creo," Ashlyn smiled at him. "Thanks so much!"

"Oh hell," Creo blushed. "I'm only doin' my job. Just glad to be helpin' you folks out."

"Then I think it's time to test them out," Lenny grinned.

"What about me?" Byz asked. "I wanna help out, Master."

"We need you to help Liina training the younglings," Lenny told him. "It's an important job. We can't put anything ahead of it, that's why we need both you and Liina doing it."

Byz looked slightly dejected. "I understand, Master."

Lenny gave the boy's shoulder a squeeze. "Don't worry, Byz. There'll be plenty of next times."

"Think of it this way," Devin said. "The sooner you get those three trained up properly, the sooner you can all be put on assignments. This is the future of the Order, we're talking about. You're responsible for them. It's a huge task, especially for a Padawan."

Byz nodded. "I guess you're right about that. I forget I'm only a Padawan sometimes."

"That's right, kiddo," Ashlyn ruffled his jaw-length blonde hair. "You're only a few years older than them yourself. Don't be in too much of a hurry, you'll miss out on all the fun."

Runice nudged Devin with her elbow. "It's time to go, Devin."

"Before you do," Kayla said to her quickly before she left, "Devin and I had a little chat."

Runice's lekku twitched subtly; all the Jedi present were fairly certain of what the chat was about.

"We've come to a decision," Kayla continued. "The final choice is completely up to you, and if you say no then we completely understand. We want you to know there is absolutely no pressure at all."

Ashlyn and Liina grinned, sensing from Kayla that she was deliberately drawing the speech out to keep the suspense and make it more of an occasion. She approached Runice then, holding the Twi'lek's saberstaff outstretched in her hands, offering it back to her.

"We'd like it very much if you would consider joining the Jedi Order. We've been observing you over the past few days – your temperament, your skills, your personality and honesty – and we both agree that you fit in very well here. Much better than we ever expected you to, if I'm honest. It would be our pleasure to have you join our ranks as a Jedi Knight."

Runice looked down at her lightsaber in Kayla's hands, then to the warm smile on the shorter girl's face. Taking the lightsaber, her expression immediately morphed into a beaming smile with several tears rolling down her cheeks. "The pleasure is all mine, Master Talus. I would be honoured to join the Order and help you make this galaxy the wonderful place you've all shown me that it can be. Thank you all so much!"

* * *

"So you're clear on what you're doing out there, Lenny?" Kayla asked through the special tactical net Creo had installed in their X-Wings; which Creo now referred to as Stealth-X's, in honour of the ancient craft they were based on – specifically, the nickname the old Jedi had given to them.

"Absolutely, Kayla," Lenny responded. "Search the area for scouts, check Bilbringi for signs of Chiss forces gathering for a strike and send the intel back to Jake."

"Good luck, Lenny-boy," Ashlyn said. "Don't forget to call us if you need help."

"There is no luck, gorgeous. Only the Force."

And with that, all three X-Wings accelerated to light speed and disappeared into space.

* * *

After Lenny began the first stage of his scouting mission around Borleias, Ashlyn and Liina landed their X-Wings at the old Republic Fighter Training base in the northern hemisphere, created almost six thousand years ago after the fall of the Empire. The then-New Republic had fortified the planet as a place to strike from when recapturing Coruscant, and Kayla immediately saw its potential for use in their own war against the Chiss. As they disembarked into one of the larger hangars, they were greeted by several human men dressed in BMF uniforms – Borleias Main Force – led by a particularly large man around seven feet tall and solidly built. Kayla looked like a very small child when she stood in front of him, and Ashlyn couldn't help but chuckle a little, which drew a glare from Kayla.

"Welcome to Borleias, Masters Talus and Valos," the tall man said with a broad, welcoming grin, shaking Kayla's hand and almost crushing it to dust in the process. "We have been expecting you. I'm Officer Kerjun."

"Pleased to meet you," Kayla answered, trying to hide the throbbing pain in her right hand. "I had no idea Borleias was such a beautiful place. From orbit, it's just spectacularly pretty."

"That's very kind of you," Kerjun said. "We're very lucky to live here, and some of the Republic's more wealthy residents are very thankful for its existence as well. But I'm sure that a holiday isn't the reason you two have come here, is it."

Kayla shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. Although I will definitely remember to if I ever get the chance. I daresay it's more beautiful here than on Spira."

"We're actually here to investigate the chance of invasion by the Chiss," Ashlyn said.

"We've been waiting for the Republic to send someone out here," Kerjun responded with a knowing nod. "When we heard news that the Mantellians were being assigned a whole fleet we almost completely lost hope. I'm glad the Republic finally saw some reason."

"We're going to need to find some compelling proof to take back to the Republic," Kayla said. "We've got another Jedi in space in a stealth fighter gathering intelligence from here and outwards towards the Unknown Regions, hopefully he'll be able to find something too."

Kerjun smiled. "Stealth fighter, you say?"

"That's right, why do you ask?"

"Well you may want to tell him to search Pyria Six. There's a reconnaissance probe on the dark side of the planet. We've got no idea what it's for or what kind of data it's gathering, all we know is that it wasn't there before a few weeks ago."

Ashlyn's eyes went wide as she turned to Kayla.

"Don't worry, Ash, we were cloaked when we entered the system. There's no way it would have spotted us." She turned to Kerjun and excused herself, then ran over to her X-Wing to use its special tactical net, knowing that any regular transmissions would be traced by the probe.

"Lenny, come in. This is Kayla, we've got something."

"_I hear you," _Lenny responded.

"The BMF just told us there's a recon probe on the far side of Pyria Six. Can you check it out?"

"_Sure, I'm headed there right now. Just one thing…won't the probe have picked up the Chancellor's request for us to come here? It might tip the Chiss off."_

"If we leave soon enough and don't give away that we know anything, I think we'll be okay. We need to act as if we found nothing though. Make no transmissions while you're in this system, Lenny. Only our tactical net is secure enough."

"_What about after that?"_

Kayla thought to herself for a few moments before answering. "Head to Bilbringi as planned, but scout that system for recon probes as well. If you get spotted, you're history. If things get desperate, jump to the Panto system and contact the Republic from there."

"_You got it, Kayla. See you back on Coruscant."_

Kayla walked back over to the BMF men and Ashlyn with a serious expression on her face.

"So what's the deal, Master Talus?" Kerjun asked, looking somewhat worried.

"Master Tanski will continue scouting for intel both here and at Bilbringi. That probe you told us about…it knows we're here, which means the Chiss are aware of us. We can't afford to tip them off if we're going to defend properly. The Chiss have to believe that they have the upper hand."

"So you're going to let them attack us?" Kerjun asked in disbelief.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Kayla answered.

"In a manner of speaking? What is this? I thought you were here to help us out?"

Kayla sighed, knowing it wasn't going to be easy to convince the officer of her plan. "We _are_ here to help. But if we're going to beat the Chiss, we can't just scare them away. If they don't take Borleias, they're going to take another system and use it for the same cause. I'd rather we fight here than in a highly populated system where there will be billions of casualties. Plus, this system is highly defensible. We can do well here."

"It's always Borleias that suffers when the Republic says things like that," Kerjun insisted. "Have you seen our history?"

"Officer Kerjun," Ashlyn interrupted. "Every system in the entire galaxy thinks the same thing about their world. If we scare the Chiss off, they will use Pantolomin or Brentaal or somewhere else much more densely populated than Borleias as their staging ground to attack the Core. The Chiss are not interested in casualties. We are. If we do this our way, the Chiss won't even get close to landing on or attacking Borleias. But if we're going to shorten the length of this war and minimise casualties as much as possible, we need to make a stand right here. We've already lost Ansion, Bilbringi and Adumar so far. We can't afford to lose any more."

Kerjun put his hands on his hips and sighed in defeat. "At least let me use the holonet to inform everyone to prepare, then."

"No, no way, officer," Kayla shook her head vigorously. "That probe will detect your broadcast and the Chiss will know we're aware of them. Any communications made have to be short wave. No exceptions. If you really want to help your people, use the public address systems to tell them to expect a Chiss attack and to keep all communication channels silent."

"This had better be worth it to your Republic," Kerjun said, trying his utmost to keep a lid on his anger. "Fine, I'll use the PA system to tell them. But if you don't keep your word and even a single tree on this planet is felled, rest assured that the Republic will hear about it."

Kayla stepped right up to Kerjun, her face barely above his elbows and only millimetres away from him, and gave him her sweetest, girliest smile. "Was that a threat?"

"You bet your sweet ass it was a threat," Kerjun answered, leaning over her as imposingly as he could. Ashlyn began laughing at the officer, which only angered him more. "What's so funny, Master Valos?"  
"You are," she laughed even harder. "You're threatening a Jedi Master. We came here to find proof that the Chiss were going to try and take this planet, kill its people, the whole works. The Republic reassigned the last of its fleets to a planet far away from here, and you have the gall to try and fight a Jedi Master because she came here to try and get proof that you need assistance? What kind of a moron are you anyway? I should kick your ass myself, just on principle."

"Why don't you just try it?" Kerjun goaded her.

Kayla looked to her right and spotted an office – probably Kerjun's. She casually strolled over and entered, quickly finding a short wave transmitter and a list of important frequencies. Dialling in the PA system's frequency, she spoke into the microphone for just long enough to get her message away, then changed the frequency and spoke quickly again for a few moments before Kerjun snatched the transmitter off her and tried to retract the message. Kayla flicked her index finger, using the Force to turn the transmitter off before he could even get a word out.

"Why isn't it working?" Kerjun yelled, bashing it with his fist. "What did you tell them?"

Kayla smiled sweetly again, almost smugly. "Well first of all, the transmitter is off. That's why it isn't working. And don't try to turn it back on, I'm a Jedi and you don't have a chance."

"You're gonna pay for this, Jedi."

"Wrong!" Kayla said happily. "_You're_ gonna pay for this. After I used the PA system to get my message across on my own, I called the Borleian Prime Minister and told him what a useless and self-centred idiot you are."

"What?! You're lying," Kerjun yelled angrily, stomping his way towards Kayla and lifting her off the ground by her armpits. Kayla just kept smiling cheekily even as he was starting to shake the tiny girl around, demanding that she tell him the truth.

"This is kinda fun," Kayla teased. "Can you give Ashlyn a turn after you're done with me?"

This was too much for Kerjun, who hurled Kayla through the open doorway and out into the hangar. Kayla simply flipped through the air and landed on her feet without so much as a single long, red hair out of place.

"Does that mean it's my turn now?" Ashlyn asked.

"Oh, officer big-guy," Kayla said. "You've got ten minutes 'til your superiors get here. I suggest you come up with a compelling story for them. Make it good, 'cause threatening a Jedi Master and trying to prevent the implementation of defence protocols isn't something you really want on your records."

"You should have just listened to us. We only came here to help stop an invasion. I guess we'll be going to Spira for our holidays after all," Ashlyn said as she waved them goodbye, strolling away to her X-Wing.

Kerjun just stood where he was with his jaw dropped, unsure of exactly what he should be doing, or what he should be thinking about the two girls.

"They sure made you look pretty stupid, sir," one of the BMF men said, to which all the others started laughing and patting Kerjun on the back.

* * *

Lenny approached the recon probe slowly and carefully, which floated freely in space on the far side of Pyria VI, making it almost invisible to anyone in the system unless they knew exactly where to look. He quickly scanned the probe, storing as much information on it as possible without alerting it to the fact that it had been discovered. Just as he was finishing up, his droid began shrieking wildly, and a message came up on the display.

_SEVERAL TRANSMISSIONS INTERCEPTED._

"What is it, Blue? What's the source?"

The little blue-domed R2-style droid – hence the reason for Lenny's nickname for it – paused for a few moments before another message appeared on the X-Wing's console.

_SOURCE IDENTIFIED AS BILBRINGI._

Almost instantly, Blue began squawking again as he intercepted some more transmissions.

"What's going on? Why are you intercepting transmissions between Bilbringi and this probe droid?"

_CHISS EXPANSIONARY DEFENSE FORCE FLEET COMMAND IS SCANNING PYRIA SYSTEM FOR RECENT ARRIVALS. TWO SCANS ARE RUN TWICE DAILY._

"So we don't have to go to Bilbringi anymore, we know the Chiss are there. What's the problem?"

_FIRST SCAN IS A REGULAR SCAN. SECOND SCAN IS FOR STEALTH CRAFT._

"Oh dear," Lenny's face went white and his body froze. "Plot a course for the Panto system, Blue. Get us out of here _now_!"

Lenny throttled up as high as he dared, trying his best not to let his ion trails show and give away his position to the probe droid.

"How are we doing, Blue? Still unnoticed?"

_ION EMISSIONS ARE NEGLIGIBLE. STEALTH SCAN IN TWO MINUTES._

Lenny wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued at his current speed until he was out of view of the probe.

_COORDINATES SET FOR PANTO SYSTEM._

"Let's get out of here before anyone finds us out."

* * *

"Master Hriyek, there's a call for you from Master Tanski," Ferros said to Liina, handing her a holocom.

"Thanks, sweetie," Liina said as she took the communicator and activated it, producing a hologram of the head and shoulders of Lenny Tanski.

"_Liina, I've got some data for you."_

"Let's have a look, then."

"_Transmitting now."_

A few moments later, a picture of a droid appeared in place of Lenny.

"_I need you to run this through the Republic's Droid Database. I found it just off of Pyria Six. It doesn't look like any probe droid I've ever seen before."_

"Will do, Lenny."

"_One more thing, Liina. It almost got me, even in the X-Wing. It's running stealth scans along with normal scans of ship movement, and it's intercepting all transmissions in the system. Kayla and I had to communicate using the tactical net."_

"I think that might just justify some decent defence for the Borleians, then," Liina surmised. "Thanks Lenny. Where are you now? Are you safe?"

"_I'm in the Panto system, just outside Pantolomin. I'm safe for now, just transmitting all that data before I head back to Coruscant. Why, you worried about me?"_

"I'm worried about that big expensive fighter craft being destroyed. Not so much about you," she teased.

"_Ouch," _Lenny laughed._ "I'll remember that, Jedi poodoo."_

Liina chuckled back at him with a cute grin. "See you soon, flyboy."

She thumbed off the holocom, then pulled a small datachip out from its side. "Let's go, Ferros," she ushered the small girl towards what passed as the Jedi Temple library these days. "We have to find out what kind of droid this is."

The two of them made their way to a terminal, and Liina pushed the datachip into a small slot, immediately bringing up the hologram of the probe droid Lenny had found.

"I've seen one of those before, back on Mandalore. It looked like that, anyway," Ferros said, pointing at the hologram. "It's not a Republic one, I think."

"Let's see if the database comes up with anything first."

Sure enough, the database produced no results at all. "You're right, Ferros. It's doesn't even look like one that we make." She thought to herself for a moment, looking right into the young girl's eyes.

"We can ask my people if they know what it is," Ferros offered. "I bet they can tell."

"That's a good idea," Liina smiled. "Go give them a call, and take the datachip with you."

"You're not coming?" Ferros asked with a slightly worried look on her young face.

Liina grinned back at her. "No, you can take care of this one."

"But this is important."

"Which is why I'm asking you to do it," Liina smiled, stroking Ferros' shoulder-length brown hair.

The young Jedi smiled happily, then ran to a nearby holocom projector and inserted the datachip, calling Mandalore himself. A holographic image of the warrior appeared at roughly one-to-one scale.

"_Greetings, _ad'ika._ What can I do for you?"_

"Hello, _Mand'alor_," Ferros bowed respectfully. "Master Tanski found a probe droid in the Pyria system, but we can't find out anything about it on the Republic systems. Can you please help me?"

Mandalore chuckled happily. _"Of course, Ferros. I will gladly help you out. Just transmit the data and I'll see what we can find."_

After a few moments of umming and ahhing, Raelus focused back on Ferros again. _"This is a Chiss design. We've seen a few of these over the years, but this one is newer and probably has a few new toys. All I can tell you about this particular one is that it's an RCI- series Probe Droid. I've sent you some data on the RCI series, but like I said, this one is a little different."_

"Thankyou, _Mand'alor_."

"_My pleasure, _ad'ika_,"_ Raelus smiled warmly. _"Make sure you stay on your best behaviour, look after your little brother, and give my best to the Jedi."_

"I will," Ferros giggled. "Bye-bye, _Mand'alor_."

The young girl took the datachip and handed it to Liina, who placed it back into the terminal they were using earlier. The data Mandalore had given them instantly came up on the screen, and Liina and Ferros read through it as quickly as they could. Before long, both girls' eyes widened as they discovered some of the 'new toys' Mandalore was referring to.

"Master Hriyek, does that mean the Chiss will have a picture of the whole system every half a day?"

Liina took the datachip out and held it in front of her. "Yes, sweetie. It means that they Chiss will know exactly where to strike from, exactly when, and exactly who will be wherever they are when they do. I need to get this information out as fast as possible. Come on, sweetie, let's go see the Admiral."


	14. The Revelation

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 14 – The Revelation**

Runice and Devin managed to slip through the Chiss defences in orbit above Ansion without any problems at all. Creo's modifications included a small cloaking device sufficient to camouflage the entire X-Wing up until an hour before it lost all power, an ion emission controller which hid the engine exhaust and prevented it from being tracked, and a comms interceptor which could receive transmissions for up to five hundred thousand kilometres around and trace the signal through hyperspace to determine the source. The modifications had worked so well that they managed to navigate their way almost halfway across the planet only barely above the tree line without being spotted. Setting down amongst a rare cluster of trees only a few kilometres from the capital of Cuipernam, they disembarked Devin's two-seater X-Wing and locked it down, instructing his droid Rusty to alert him if anyone suspicious came along. "We can't afford for the Chiss to find out about our stealth tech," he explained to Runice. They kept to the trees at the edge of one of Ansion's massive plains, trying their best to stay hidden and move quickly at the same time.

"Let's use the lower gravity to our advantage as much as we can," Devin suggested. "We should be able to move pretty quickly here."

"It's a shame the Chiss were so eager to take this place. It's really quite beautiful and peaceful here."

"I hear you," Devin agreed. "Have you noticed something else?"

Runice scanned the Force quickly, and instantly recognised what Devin was talking about. "There's barely anyone here. All I sense is some pretty dismal life forms near Cuipernam. The rest of the planet seems deserted."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Runice grinned conspiratorially and nodded. Devin then activated his comlink.

"Commander Kryss, come in."

"_Kryss here, good to hear from you, Rokanh."_

"Likewise, Commander," Devin couldn't help but grin. He liked Commander Kryss. "Runice and I have a theory."  
_"Already, sir? You've only just arrived. You Jedi don't mess around, do you?"_

"It's in the job description, Commander," Devin joked. "Listen, there's barely anyone here. We can only sense some pretty vague life forms, all centred around the Capital, which we think may be the survivors; Ansionian and Gwurran slaves, mostly. If we're correct, we may be able to take this whole planet back with just us two and a couple of squads of troops."

"_But isn't the population of Ansion close to thirty million?"_

"Yeah, but there's hardly any military presence here at all. Only one cruiser in space, which we can probably take out from the ground using Ansion's defence turrets, and a skeletal occupation force to keep the locals in line. I'm guessing there will be one big important guy here to run the place, but I reckon if we take him out first we shouldn't have too much trouble taking out the Chiss occupants. Runice and I can take out the leadership, we just need a couple of squads of snipers to clean up the trash and free the slaves."

"_If you think that'll work, then I'll ready my men."_

"Not yet, Kryss. Let us have a closer look around, we'll be in touch."

"_You got it, Master Rokanh. Speak to you soon, my friend."_

"Later, Brellin."

Runice led the way into Cuipernam where the two Jedi split up to go scouting. After only a few minutes Devin spotted a slave encampment in an old munitions factory and contacted Runice.

"I've found one," he whispered.

"_Me too. Some sort of factory. Looks like they're building land assault transports."_

"Munitions factory over here."

"_Have you seen inside yet?"_

"I'm in it now," Devin whispered, looking around at the dim lighting and the poor slaves, who were all pretty exhausted looking.

"_If yours is the same as this one, I think this mission might be a whole lot easier than we had planned for."_

"I think I see what you mean," Devin muttered quietly as he noticed that all the slaves had shock collars on, but he saw no one enforcing them.

"_I'm gonna try and talk to one of the slaves, see what I can find out."_

"Okay. I'll try and find some more locals, hopefully I'll run into someone who can tell me what's going on here. Something doesn't feel right."

Devin exited the building carefully and continued sneaking around the streets until he found the old Cuipernam communications hub. Peering inside, he spotted a single Chiss officer and two Ansionians, both wearing shock collars. He waited until the Chiss had left the room, then snuck inside and crawled low towards them. He tugged at one of the Ansionians' trouser legs, and he jumped in surprise before looking down at Devin, calming when he realised it was a Jedi.

"I'm so glad you're here, Jedi," the Ansionian whispered, trying to look like he was busying himself with his work. "Please tell me there's a full squadron of troopers outside ready to blast these Chiss into microbes."

Devin shook his head solemnly. "Sorry, pal. It's just me and another Jedi scouting around at this stage. But you may be able to help me get that squadron of troops here quicker."

"Anything we can do to help, Jedi."

Devin grinned. "That's the spirit. Tell me, what are the Chiss up to here?"

The Ansionians both continued to pretend they were working away. "Monitoring comms traffic throughout the Churnis Sector is what we do here. They don't tell us much, being slaves and all."

"Do you know why they're even here? There doesn't seem to be much action going on," Devin asked, fishing for as much info as he could get.

"Well the truth is, there really isn't much going on here. It's as if the Chiss just didn't want the Republic to have it. They've enslaved whatever they could of the population and made them work in factories and such to keep their supplies and materiel up, but other than that, it's really not very eventful."

Devin grinned again as the Ansionian confirmed more of his theories. "So how about the running of the place? I've seen the slaves, but I don't see any slave handlers."

The Ansionians looked at each other with concerned expressions, then the first one spoke again. "There are slave handlers, but not many. Each building will have only one handler, even the factories. Like I said, it's almost as if they just don't want the Republic to have Ansion. They don't seem to need it for themselves."

"But that's not the bit you need to worry about, Jedi," the other said. "The one in charge of the whole works, he's a really scary guy. Big human man around six and a half feet tall and very, very powerful. Made minced meat out of anyone who even spoke in hushed tones. He's at the government building."

"A Sith Lord," Devin thought to himself. "Leave that to me." He got up to leave, thanking the two Ansionians for their very useful info.

"Wait, Jedi," the second one whispered loudly, still not turning away from his monitor. "You can't leave us here."

Devin sighed, knowing he had no choice. "Don't worry, friend. I'll be back. I've got a plan to get you all free and get the Chiss off your planet. But we're going to need some troopers to help us out, and we need to get rid of that big cruiser in orbit."

"How long will you be?" the first one asked. "I mean, how long do we have to keep being slaves on our own planet?"

Devin thought to himself, then answered as surely as he could. "I'd say maximum, a week. I promise you, we'll be back to set you all free. You have my word."

"We'll hold you to that, Jedi. Now get out of here, I think I hear the supervisor coming back."

Devin quickly made his way outside again, looking back at the two Ansionians as he left, giving them a nod before he rounded the corner of the building. Activating his comlink again, he waited for Runice to answer.

"_What did you find?"_

"The Chiss don't have any important operations on this planet at all. They're just holding it. Some of the population are enslaved, but I get the impression a lot of them are in hiding and the Chiss couldn't be bothered finding them all."

"_That's what I gathered too. They're all in Cuipernam, the other cities are deserted. I also found out the slaves only have one handler per building, and there's only about fifty buildings. Also, there appears to be a Sith in charge."  
_"Yeah, holed up in the government building from what I hear. How many of those Sith do the Chiss have anyway? I thought they had a Rule of Two?"

"_Not these Sith. This is more like the Sith of the Great Galactic War than the Darth Bane and Darth Sidious types you've probably heard the most about."_

"Well you can tell me all about that on the way back to Coruscant. Let's meet at the ship."

* * *

Liina and Ferros entered Admiral Minvessen's office and found him arguing with a holo of Senator Jarvis.

"_You're treading on very thin ice, Minvessen. All I need is a singular shred of evidence and you'll never be able to set foot on a Republic world ever again."_

"By all means, Senator, go away and find your evidence. I'd love to see a pathetic little man from Ord Mantell try and fight the Jedi Order _and_ the Chancellor of the Republic. Remind me again, what is this going to resolve for you anyway?"

"_You filthy pilot, you know exactly what I'm talking about," _Jarvis spat. _"It's all power, power, power for you military types, while Ord Mantell burns away to nothing. I'll see you dead before this war is over, I promise you, Minvessen."_

"A death threat from a Senator?" Minvessen laughed. "It would be a shame if someone were to record this conversation."

"_You don't have the balls to go against me, pilot sleemo scum ball."_

"I assure you I have more balls in my hat than you've ever had connected to you. Besides, I'm enjoying this far too much to just have you removed from office. Where would the fun be in that? It's your people who will suffer because of your stupidity, not me. All you're doing is entertaining me."

Jarvis grunted angrily and deactivated his holocom, ending the transmission. Ferros' eyebrows were raised in surprise. "He swears like a Mandalorian, only a Mandalorian would do it in person, not through a holo call."

Minvessen laughed heartily. "Very true. If Jarvis was a Mandalorian, I might actually believe half the stuff that comes out of his mouth. But then, if he was Mandalorian, he'd probably have enough honour not to lie constantly."

Ferros smiled. "Mandalorians don't need to lie."

"Also very true." Minvessen then ushered the two girls to a pair of comfortable seats on the opposite side of his desk. "Now what can I do for you two lovely ladies?"

"We're actually here to show you something," Liina explained, passing him the datachip that stored the information on the RCI series probe droids. "Have a look at this."

Minvessen perused the information carefully for a few minutes, then looked up at Liina. "Nasty piece of kit."

"Master Tanski found one just outside Pyria Six."  
"The Pyria system…what was it doing exactly?"

Liina wore her most serious expression. "Intercepting all communications in and outbound and tracing all movement twice daily."

"So the Chiss are planning their strike on Borleias," Minvessen stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"It was also scanning stealth movements," Liina explained. "It's a newer model than any we can get info on. It runs two scans twice daily, and every time there's any movement throughout the system. The results are collated by CEDF Fleet Command. Basically, it takes pictures of the whole system so the Chiss can see exactly what's happening. Lenny was lucky to make it out without tipping them off."

"I see…" Minvessen continued to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "What about the girls?"  
"We think they might be okay, since they left soon after they arrived. It looks like they found nothing and moved on."

"This might actually work in our favour," Minvessen smiled. "If the Chiss think they've got the whole thing figured out, they will never expect a strike from a lone fighter. We can take the probe out first and have a whole fleet waiting just inside the system ready to microjump in once the fighter's gotten to work."

"We'll need to take the probe out less than half a day from when they arrive though, and the fighter will have to take out the Chiss long-range turbolasers too before they can blast Borleias into tiny bits. It'll be a pretty hairy job for the pilot."

"That's why a Jedi is going to do it," Minvessen smiled hopefully.

Liina looked at Ferros warily, and the little girl just grinned back. "We can do it. We're Jedi, Master Hriyek."

"Tell you what," Minvessen leaned forward in his chair, hands clasped together on his desk. "We'll need a few days to go through this intel and try to establish a time frame for the Chiss attack anyway. Why don't you take this back to Master Talus and Master Rokanh and we'll go through this together when we've all had some time to think."  
Liina nodded and smiled back at the Admiral. "Okay, sounds good to me."

"Oh by the way," Minvessen added. "This is no Republic droid. Where did you find the info on this? I'll need to know if we're going to plan anything."

"Speak to Mandalore. He's had dealings with the Chiss before, too. Together, you should be able to come up with something pretty nifty."

"Thanks, Master Hriyek. I'll do that." Minvessen stood and shook Liina's hand as she turned to leave. "And thanks to you too, young Padawan Hekla."

Ferros smiled gleefully and giggled as Admiral Minvessen winked at her before the two girls left the office and returned to the Jedi Temple.

* * *

Kayla, Liina, Byz, Lenny, Ashlyn, Ferros, Gavin and Xander were already waiting in the Council chamber when Devin and Runice walked in and took their seats. Because there were still only six seats, Byz and the younglings had to take spots on the floor.

"Runice has told me some interesting facts about the Sith we're fighting," Devin announced. "I think you'll all be pretty surprised at the news."

Kayla and Ashlyn exchanged glances, trying to read Devin through the Force, but unable to since Devin was keeping his thoughts and feelings closely guarded. He continued.

"First though, a little history lesson," he smiled. "Everything we've heard about the Sith from the Jedi holocrons we have seems to indicate that they always follow the Rule of Two – a master and an apprentice, and no more. Traditionally – from what we understand of the situation at least – this is because close to seven thousand years ago, during the New Sith Wars, a Sith named Darth Bane grew tired of the infighting that is common amongst their kind, and learnt from a Sith holocron about Darth Revan.

"Darth Revan existed some ten thousand years ago; he was originally a Jedi Knight, and became famous for his offensive stance in the Mandalorian Wars, where the Jedi perhaps overly-cautiously denied anyone from entering the war. Once the Mandalorians were defeated, he chased the remnants to the outer rim and was captured and turned to the dark side by the ancient Sith Emperor. Revan came back as Darth Revan, with his friend and comrade Malak now his apprentice. This was the original Rule of Two, and Darth Bane recreated the Sith in Revan's image. This was the same Rule of Two that destroyed the Republic six thousand years ago, during the time of our holocrons' creators.

"You will have noticed that we have seen the defeat of two Sith Lords and the conversion of another already. We've fought a fourth Sith now – Darth Leuenaar – and have heard of a new Sith Emperor. Initially, I just thought that they were replacing the Sith as quickly as they lost them, and that perhaps the apprentice had apprentices. But this isn't the case.

"Runice has told me that the first Sith holocron that the Sith found some ten years ago was the holocron created by an ancient Sith Emperor, once named Vitiate, during the time of the Great Galactic War and subsequent Cold War. The current Sith Emperor who leads the Sith from the Chiss Ascendancy has recreated himself in Vitiate's image, and recreated the Sith Empire along with it."

Runice interrupted Devin then, continuing the explanation. "That's all they told me. I only met a few Sith myself, but it was enough to know that there were dozens, if not hundreds of them. They're using the Chiss Ascendancy to gain a foothold in this part of the galaxy without wasting many of their own people's lives. I also got the distinct impression that there was a Dark Council, similar to a Jedi Council, and that it was being run from somewhere else in the Unknown Regions, not Csilla."

The other Jedi were mostly too awestruck to do anything but listen. Everything they'd been taught about the Sith up until now was redundant information. Only Kayla was able to find some words, in the form of questions.

"So what you're saying then is that we're outnumbered, possibly outgunned and that we don't even know where they're striking from?"

Runice's head drooped solemnly. "Yes, essentially."

"That sucks," Ashlyn stated the obvious. "So there's ten of us, and probably hundreds of them? And they've got nine or ten years on us?"

"Yes, but we've got a bigger pool to pick Jedi from, and no egos to worry about," Runice said. "Remember what Devin just said about Darth Bane? The reason he chose to use the Rule of Two was to prevent infighting amongst the Sith. Without it, they're doomed to kill each other while trying to grab more power. We won't have that problem."

"But they're still an empire," Liina said doubtfully. "We've only been around for a very short time."

"I think you're giving them too much credit," Lenny smiled. "This emperor, if he's only been using the Force for ten years then he can't be _that_ powerful. And besides, wasn't the ancient Sith Emperor supposed to be immortal? I doubt this guy is."

"I've been in his presence before," Runice scolded. "He's not to be trifled with."

"I think Lenny's right, though," Ashlyn said. "Ten years of power-grabbing won't equate to anything like the hundreds of years of isolation the old Sith Empire had away from the Republic, under the rule of the same guy the whole time."

"What do you think, Runice?" Devin asked.

The red-skinned Twi'lek thought for a few seconds, twisting her lekku in her fingers. "I think you've all got some interesting points," she announced. "Lenny's right; ten years is nothing like the hundreds that the old Emperor had. But it's still a damn-side more than what we have. Sure, we have a larger selection of people to gain new members for our Order, but they've already got the members, for all we know. Training up new Jedi takes years. Even once these four grow old enough," she pointed to the four younglings, "we'll still only have ten fully trained Jedi, versus one ridiculously powerful emperor and possibly hundreds of fully trained Sith."

"So we have no chance then?" Liina asked with resignation.

"I'm not saying we have no chance," Runice said carefully. "I'm just saying that we should be very, very wary. There's a lot even I don't know about, so we can't take anything on its merits. We need to keep fighting the Chiss and prevent them from gaining any sort of foothold in the Republic's part of the galaxy, and we need to keep supporting the troops as much as we can without overextending ourselves. But we need more Jedi as well."

"Don't forget too, guys," Devin added. "Lenny's the oldest one here, and he's only twenty-one. Even Kayla is only nineteen years old. We have a lot of time ahead of us. As long as we survive, we'll be a threat to the Sith."

All the Jedi then turned around, sensing the arrival of Jake Minvessen. Just as he was approaching the door they all turned back around and waited for him to enter. As he did, he was greeted by Gavin, Ferros and Xander, who muttered 'hello Admiral Minvessen' like schoolchildren while still facing the other way. Minvessen stood dumbstruck in the doorway.

"I wish I knew how you Jedi do that. Freaks me out every time."

The younglings giggled, enjoying the bemusement they were causing the Admiral.

"I've had some time to go through our plan with Mandalore," Jake announced, "and we've come up with something that should work. I understand Master Rokanh has something interesting to tell me about Ansion, too."

Devin ushered Jake into the centre of the chamber, where many Jedi had historically stood while awaiting orders from the council and reporting their findings after and during missions. "Ansion's barely defended," Devin told him. "There's one cruiser in space which we can take care of from the surface using Ansion's ground batteries, and most of the population are in hiding. The rest are being held in slavery, building armaments and other such war materiel for the Chiss. But there's only very few slave drivers. A few squads of troops can take care of them, so long as they're careful and don't show themselves."

"I understand there's a Sith Lord running things on the planet as well."

"You let us worry about the Sith Lord," Runice smiled. "Your only concern is the freeing of those slaves and leaving a garrison behind when the Ansionians are getting back on track."

"Tell me what you need, and I'll make sure you get it," Minvessen said. "What's your plan?"

"Runice and I will take out communications on the surface, then we'll head straight for the Sith Lord," Devin explained. "The troops will need to run through the city of Cuipernam and take out the slave drivers individually, then free the slaves by removing their shock collars. The Ansionians will need to remain indoors and out of sight until the Sith Lord has been defeated. This whole operation needs to be done discreetly."

"Forgive me for assuming," Jake started, "but won't the Sith Lord be able to sense your presence on the planet?"

"Most likely, yes," Devin admitted.

Jake stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I'd be happier about it if Runice took out communications while you engaged the Sith Lord. It limits the chances that they would see you coming and have any time to intervene."

"I won't leave Master Rokanh to fight this guy on his own," Runice frowned.

"It's okay," Devin said to her. "I'll call for help if I need it."

Runice's frown deepened. "I don't like this."

"I won't have our troops as well as the people of Ansion put in danger because of a flawed tactic," Jake insisted. "I know that the Sith are to be feared, but we can't risk the people we're trying to save."

"It's not fear, Admiral," Runice shook her head. "It's a calculation. I'd rather be overzealous in the fight and come out on top than guess and potentially lose a powerful Jedi in the process."

Jake sighed, putting his hands on his hips and turning his head to the side. "I can't promise we'll have many troops to devote to this. Not enough to take out the communications while freeing all the slaves. "

Kayla spoke up then. "I don't even like that we're sending two Jedi to Ansion, to be honest. I'd prefer if Devin went by himself with more troops."

"We don't have the troops to spare," Jake responded. "Otherwise I'd send as many as it took. I'd overwhelm the Chiss and force them to give us Ansion back, but unfortunately we only have four squads."

Devin thought to himself for a moment. "What about Commander Kryss and his men?"

Jake's eyes lit up. "I hadn't considered that," he admitted. "They're ready to go, actually, and they're the best we have."

"Then it's settled," Devin grinned. "I'll take the Sith Lord while Kryss and his men take out the comms. The rest of the troops can snipe the slave drivers and wait for my signal before freeing the slaves."

"I still don't like that you're taking on this Sith Lord all by yourself," Runice said, her face filled with worry. "But you're the Jedi Master, and if you think you can do it then I guess I approve."

"Don't worry, Runice," Kayla smiled. "Devin's the most powerful Jedi here. If anyone can take down a Sith Lord, it's him."

Runice smiled in return. She liked Kayla, but she knew just as well as Kayla did that she was lying.

"Now, about Borleias," Jake continued. "As I said earlier, Mandalore and myself have come up with a plan. We've analysed what data we could obtain on the RCI-series probe droids, and using previous analysis of the Pyria system we've come up with a time frame for our defence." He began pacing slowly from left to right, alternating his attention from Liina to Ashlyn, to Devin, to Kayla, to Lenny, and finally Runice, then back again.

"The First and Fifth Fleets will jump into the Pyria system from Coruscant at around midday our time two days from now, and situate themselves on the coreward edge. The last of the twin-scans will have been run only a standard hour or so before they arrive, and according to our predictions, only a few standard hours from when the Chiss will be hypering in.

"A Jedi Stealth-X will jump with our fleets, but will go all the way through to Pyria Six in full cloak and take out the probe droid. The Chiss shouldn't detect that anything has happened. Once they arrive, the fleets will microjump just outside Borleias and situate themselves between the Chiss and the planet. We'll have ground defences in place on the planet, utilising the old Republic's artillery. This includes twin-ion cannons we can use to deplete the enemy's shields. The reason I'm telling you all this is because the request has been made for the Jedi to lead our pilots in the battle."

Kayla squirmed a little in her chair. "Who's requesting?"

"The Republic is requesting," Minvessen said nervously.

"We're Jedi, Jake, and you know us well enough by now to know that we can see through you," Ashlyn said seriously. "So who's requesting?"

Jake stopped pacing and looked Ashlyn directly in her eyes and spoke. "I'm requesting. Many of the Senators would prefer that the Jedi were stationed planet-side in case of a Chiss ground assault."

"But you think that would encourage our forces to lose their space battle," Liina surmised.

"What I think is that we need to win this in space," Jake answered with passion. "The Chiss need to be dealt a massive blow in this battle, and that means they don't ever get to even go near Borleias."

The Jedi convened with each other for a few moments, mostly using what telepathic abilities they had at their disposal, which was mostly just the transferring of thoughts and images to each other. But Minvessen wasn't aware of that.

"We agree," Kayla announced. "The Chiss need to lose this battle in space, and big-time. We'll each lead a squadron, and we want Gavin, Ferros and Xander on the bridge of the _Solar Wind_. Mostly to observe and provide some Jedi insight for the Fleet Admiral, but also because if comms fail then they'll be our only link to the fleets."

"Alright then," Jake nodded and smiled. "I'll be leading this battle myself, from the _Solar Wind_. So you have my word that I'll protect them." He bowed, as he assumed was customary for the Jedi, then took his leave. On his way out, he stopped and spoke. "Six Jedi leading squadrons, one taking back an entire planet, and three helping me out on the bridge of the _Solar Wind_," he turned and grinned slyly at them. "The Chiss don't stand a chance out there."


	15. The Battle of Pyria

**Star Wars: Rebirth**

**Chapter 15 – The Battle of Pyria**

Devin raced through the streets of Cuipernam with his white lightsaber in hand, his finger on the activation button ready to push it at the first sign of any trouble. Kryss had already informed him via comlink that Ansion's communications were down, and that his squad had joined the other troops in taking out the dozens and dozens of slave drivers holed up in the various factories around the city. Devin reached the government building in the centre of town only a few minutes later; the same place Kayla had defeated Darth Rengar for the final time before he was killed by his own master, Darth Caeer. He entered the building through an unlocked transparisteel window, not wanting to alert any guards that he had arrived. Passing through a number of hallways, he tried to remember the layout of the place as Senator Golan had described to him. He noticed that it had been kept remarkably neat and relatively untouched. Even all the original furnishings and decorative items were still in place as they had been before the invasion. He sensed the dark presence of the Sith Lord, and he knew that the Sith could sense him too. Using the Force, he kept his footsteps to a miniscule volume until he reached the building's main hall, where he sensed the Sith Lord would be. Sure enough, seated at the other end of the hall in a huge throne-like chair was the Sith. He wore a black hooded robe with the hood up, armoured gauntlets and knee-high boots, and a lightsaber dangling from his belt.

"Welcome, Master Rokanh," the Sith said with a very thick, almost overemphasised coreward accent. "I was going to call for reinforcements, but since you're here all on your own, I suppose they aren't needed."

"Oh I brought friends, but they have some things to do first. I thought I'd catch up with you so you'd know we're all civilised here," Devin kept up the mockery. "It would be rude of us not to at least have one person say hi before we crash your party."

"How considerate," the Sith grinned, showing a perfect white set of teeth. Lowering his hood and standing, he rose to his full height, which was several inches taller than Devin, just as the Ansionian slave had told him he'd be. He had short cropped black hair, and bright yellow eyes rimmed with red. And he was big; really big. Devin estimated that he would weigh at least fifty kilograms more than him.

"So tell me, Sith," Devin grinned back, drawing his lightsaber, "what do I call you? You know my name, it's only polite."

"Manners are so rare these days, are they not? It's good to see an adversary so well versed in the customs of proper people. My name is Darth Lydan. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, young Jedi Master."

"The pleasure's all yours, Lord Lydan."

* * *

"_All craft microjump on my mark," _Jake said. _"Three, two, one, mark!"_

For a few moments, all space blurred into lines, then resolved again as the fleet's hyperdrive engines completed their work. Immediately they saw the Chiss fleet, which seemed to be comprised of two large _Annihilation _-class cruisers and two smaller _Carnage _-class cruisers.

"_All fighters launch now! Go, go, go!"_ came Minvessen's order.

"Alright Blue Squadron, form up on me," Lenny said through his squadron's tactical net. "Keep formation, we're going straight for the turbolasers."

Lenny had been the one to take out the probe droid, staying stealthed until the fleets arrived. Now that they had, he disengaged his X-Wing's cloaking device to allow the rest of Blue Squadron to know where he was. They formed up into four wings with himself leading the charge.

"Full throttle, everyone. Keep your shields full forward."

"_Which cruiser has the fancy turbolasers?"_ asked Blue Seven in his Corellian accent.

"Closest one; friend-or-foe designation should read 'AN-2'," Lenny answered. "Now split it up. Blues two to six with me. Seven, you take the rest on the straight run, just like we planned."

The Chiss cruisers were all variations on the same shape, which was a huge elongated diamond-shape with a large indentation around their centre which housed the long-range lasers and the hangar bays. The bridge was near the top of the dorsal tip of the diamond, made obvious by its dark-tinted transparisteel viewport running left to right across the central angle. Lenny had spoken with the pilots from Blue Squadron before leaving, and together they'd concocted a plan to strike at the long-range turbolasers from two opposing angles, making two strafing runs each to take out the twin laser batteries. As Lenny's half of the squadron came close, he saw the other half successfully take out one of the lasers and smiled to himself.

"Nice work, guys. Two to six, fire your torpedoes now!"

This time the Chiss were prepared for the torpedoes and fired flares to counter them. Cursing to himself, he used the Force to grab all six torpedoes and alter their trajectory slightly, causing the flares to miss their mark. He almost began celebrating early until the flares came back around.

"Sithspit!" he cursed loudly, hammering his fist against the X-Wing's console. "Everyone back off, I've got this. Cover me!"

He cut the throttle on his X-Wing as the rest of his squad thundered past him. Concentrating as hard as he could, he closed his eyes and grabbed the proton torpedoes, fighting their propulsion with all he could muster. When he felt them give way to his Force grip, he found the laser battery and slammed all six straight at it as hard as he could.

"_Blue leader, there's one on your tail! Break to starboard, break to starboard!"_

Lenny reopened his eyes, his droid Blue screaming at him to evade, but he knew it was too late. There was no way he'd be able to re-engage the throttle and get up to speed quickly enough. Resigned to his fate, he knew he'd done his part in this battle. The long-range turbolaser batteries had been neutralised; the Borleians would live this day.

* * *

Runice saw the Chiss interceptor craft heading straight for Lenny and put it straight in her sights. The Chiss pilot was clearly an amateur, and didn't even notice her trailing him. Shaking her head in disappointment, she squeezed the trigger and all four laser cannons loosed a crimson-red burst of energy, striking the interceptor craft and tearing it to pieces.

"Drinks are on you, Lenny," she said through the tactical net, grinning to herself.

"_Sounds great to me,"_ she heard Liina respond. _"Gold Squad likes their ale cold and in double-standard glasses."_

Several Gold Squadron pilots echoed their approval as Runice doubled back on herself, shaking off a pair of Chiss fighters who apparently didn't appreciate their leader being taken out. _Your fault for having a terrible squadron leader_, she thought to herself as she got one in her sights and pulled the trigger; the other fighter was taken out by her wingmate Red Two. As her wing drew closer to the _Annihilation_-class cruiser designated 'AN-1', she clicked her comm button on to address everyone.

"All squadrons," she began as they approached the cruiser's aft, "there's two square panels aft of the bridge on these cruisers, on the back of the dorsal diamond tip. They're the shield generators."

"_We'll target those from the _Solar Wind_, you guys worry about the fighters," _Minvessen ordered as another ion cannon blast hit the Chiss cruisers, further reducing their shields.

Runice felt a disturbance in the Force then, and immediately reached out to the younglings aboard the _Solar Wind_. "Did you feel that, Ferros?"

"_I felt it, Master,"_ the girl responded._ "Someone powerful just left that first _Annihilation_ cruiser. I can feel them heading towards the planet. I'll see if I can track it."_

"_I'm going after them,"_ Kayla announced. _"Green Four, the squad is yours."_

"_Green leader, do not follow that ship," _Minvessen ordered. _"It's one ship, the Borleias can handle it themselves planet-side. Do not follow it!"_

"_I'm sorry, Jake, but whoever is aboard that ship is powerful enough to kill everyone on Borleias by himself. I have to destroy it before it's too late."_

Just as Runice was about to argue with Minvessen, Ferros spoke up instead.

"_Ignore Admiral Minvessen's order, Green leader. Go get 'em."_

Runice reached out to Ferros again, and she felt her reassurance through the Force. _That's a ten year old kid_, she thought to herself and smiled. _She's going to be a hell of a Jedi. I hope I'll be around to see it._

* * *

"If you insist, then I'm happy to have the pleasure all to myself, Jedi fool!"

Darth Lydan disappeared from view, then reappeared an instant later only a foot away from Devin, a demonic smile on his face and his teeth bared. Devin grinned back as Lydan snarled and activated a blood-red lightsaber. Devin activated his white saber and dropped into Soresu guard, waiting for Lydan to make a move. An instant later the move was made, Lydan slashing left to right across Devin's torso. He dodged it, only moving a centimetre further than he had to in order to avoid it. He then blocked a downward slash, raising his saber overhead and using all his strength just to hold the bigger man at bay. Lydan spun into a kick, landing it on Devin's chest and sending him flying backwards. Devin flipped in the air, landing on his feet again, and parried a thrust, using the momentum to spin and slash at Lydan's torso, but the big Sith blocked it easily.

_He's so erratic,_ Devin thought to himself. _It must be Juyo form…Kayla's favourite form._

"You would be right, Master Rokanh," Lydan grinned again, reading Devin's surface thoughts through the Force. "I am indeed using Juyo form. Congratulations are in order, I think. No one I have fought has lasted this long against me, and certainly not long enough to pick my lightsaber form."

"I think we'll leave the congratulations until after I beat you," Devin sniggered. "I don't like counting my credits until they've been taxed."

Lydan laughed uproariously, throwing his head back. "And what makes you so certain that you'll win? You're already tiring, and I haven't even started to begin sweating!"

Devin had to admit to himself that Lydan was correct: he _was_ already tired. Never before had he needed to move so quickly and so carefully in so short a time just to stay alive. He wasn't sure he could keep it up for too much longer before making a mistake, and he was certain that Lydan wouldn't make one before he did. Not in lightsaber combat. But Devin had learnt Juyo form at the same time that Kayla did, and had decided not to focus on it because of its one serious weakness. Kyle Katarn had warned them himself that it was a dangerous form to use. Kayla had overcome its weakness by using two lightsabers and employing some of the acrobatic moves that the Ataru form used, effectively overwhelming any opponent she faced with brutal speed and outright ferocity. _But this guy_…_he hasn't changed a thing. He hasn't even tried to do anything about it. He's playing to my strengths and he doesn't even realise._

"Well?" Lydan demanded. "Have you nothing to say? Or are you too tired already?"

Devin just smiled, lowering his guard. "You have a weakness, Lydan. You can't win. But you seem like a nice enough Sith, so I'll give you one chance: leave Ansion, take your cruiser with you, and don't let me catch you near a Republic system again."

Lydan almost fell on the ground with laughter. Once he had recomposed himself, he dropped back into Juyo guard. "You're a funny man, Master Rokanh. I can see why you're a Jedi Master, your confidence is astounding. You must be very popular amongst your fellow Jedi."

"A simple 'no' would have been fine. But if you want to hear the sound of your own voice that badly, then please continue."

"Oh you're simply marvellous," Lydan snarled. "I'm going to enjoy putting you down."

Lydan charged again, continuing his erratic attacks and forcing Devin quickly onto the back foot. Devin struggled to block them all, conceding a lot of ground in his efforts to keep from being sliced open. After what seemed to be an eternity, he finally saw the opening he'd been waiting for: Lydan spun, giving Devin precious milliseconds. His eyes lit up as he saw the opportunity, and quickly grabbed Lydan by the throat using the Force. He held the huge Sith Lord in place a foot above the ground and using all the willpower he could muster, he threw him hard against the eastern wall, almost putting him through it. Lydan got up and growled angrily, reactivating his lightsaber and leaping the distance between them in one jump. Before he could finish the overhead slash he had planned, Devin Force-pushed Lydan across the room, slamming him into the northern wall this time. The wall collapsed, not able to withstand the kind of force Devin had used to hurl the Sith Lord into it with. Gasping in pain, Lydan tried to get up, but found Devin standing over the top of him with the tip of his white saber pointed at his face.

"You know, Runice tried to tell me I wouldn't be able to handle you on my own," Devin said with a mocking grin. Lydan tried to Force Push Devin away, but Devin just absorbed the blow with his left hand and negated it completely. Frustrated by his tenacity, Devin again grabbed Lydan by the throat and slammed him into the wall, knocking the wind out of him.

"You might know Runice as Darth Vorcyl. She turned to the Jedi after your emperor tried to kill her."

Lydan sniggered rudely as he recognised the name.

"You _do_ know her, then," Devin smiled, pointing his saber at the Sith's face again. "I suppose you think that she's weak, do you? Well I happen to know another girl, younger than Runice and much smaller. Physically, she's about as terrifying as a baby gizka. She also uses Juyo form, and you know what?" Devin held his lightsaber so close to Lydan's right cheek that it started to burn it, the heat of the blade causing the skin to bubble and blister. Lydan screamed in agony, not able to move away from the white blade as he was forced hard up against the wall. "She would never make the mistake of being open to Force attacks like you did. You're an amateur, Lydan."

Darth Lydan became enraged by Devin's taunting, using the Force to shield his hand from the heat of the lightsaber blade and pushed it aside. As he stood up, Devin chuckled to himself.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he said as he again picked Lydan up by the throat and flung him across the room and into the opposite wall, smashing the duracrete into thousands of pieces and shattering Lydan's hips and shoulder blades. He brought the Sith Lord closer to him and held him up off the ground, looking straight into his eyes.

"You…can't kill me," Lydan struggled to say. "You're a Jedi. The light side…forbids it."

Devin just grinned at him. "We're more grey than light, and you're a danger that needs to be stopped, so goodbye _my lord_."

Lydan's eyes bulged from their sockets as he felt his uppermost vertebrae push towards the front of his neck with terrifying force, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.

* * *

The armoured shuttle raced towards Borleias with a speed that it was in no way capable of, as if it had been fired from the cruiser instead of launching under its own power.

"_Leave it, Kayla. You're needed up here in space!"_ Minvessen shouted.

"I'm going after it," she said determinedly. "Whoever's in that shuttle is too strong to let go. All our efforts here will be wasted if I don't shoot it down."

Kayla felt very appreciative of Creo's engineering at that moment; no other craft in the Republic fleet would have even a remote chance of catching the shuttle under sublight drives except the X-Wings. Closing in on it as she entered Borleias' atmosphere, she began firing her quad lasers at it, triggered to fire one at a time, but the shots seemed to all go wide. Frustrated, she fired again even though her droid Squeaky screamed in protest at the pace they were descending at.

_SHIELDS FAILING. PRESENT VELOCITY WILL CAUSE TOTAL FAILURE IN THIRTY SECONDS_.

"I know, I know!" she shouted to the droid. "I can't afford to lose it!"

All of a sudden the shuttle burst into flames, and Kayla saw an escape pod firing off towards the old Imperial Military base.

"Track that escape pod, Squeaky," Kayla said as she throttled back, much to the droid's relief. Following the escape pod's trajectory, she landed the X-Wing about a kilometre away from it in the military base itself. As she disembarked she was greeted by Commander Villanov, the same commander who was stationed at Bilbringi before its destruction at the hands of the Chiss.

"We've tracked that escape pod, General Talus, but it appears that no one was aboard," Villanov announced even as he saluted her.

"What about the shuttle?"

"In thousands of pieces, most of which are in the atmosphere or the ocean."

"Then he must already be on his way here," Kayla surmised, walking off towards the main entrance. "Where are the ion cannon controls?"

"Down the hall, in the defensive control room," Villanov pointed in the direction Kayla was already heading. "You think whoever was in that shuttle is trying to access them?"

"Yes," Kayla nodded. "It's the only reason they would even bother to land here."

"Alright then, I'll bring in a full squad of troops to defend it-"

"No," Kayla interrupted, stopping the Commander in his tracks. "They'll all die. I'll do it myself."

Villanov looked down at Kayla's lightsabers thoughtfully, then back up at her face. "Very well," he nodded. "I understand, General. Where do you want me?"

"You come with me."

Kayla led the way down the corridors towards the defensive control room and stopped dead in her tracks as she reached its entrance.

"What is it, General?"

Kayla closed her eyes momentarily, sensing the Sith Lord approaching. "He's here." She kept her eyes closed, trying to focus on his exact position when she opened them suddenly and pushed Villanov to the floor. "Get down!" she ordered the officers controlling the ion cannons and shielding, but it was too late. Darth Leuenaar stood in a gaping hole in the wall he had created. His lightsaber had cut down eight men and he held about twenty more in the air using the Force, all of them grasping at invisible hands clutching their throats.

"Hello again, Master Talus," Leuenaar grinned as he snapped one officer's neck and let him fall lifelessly to the floor.

Kayla scowled angrily, holding her left arm out to block Villanov from making any stupid moves.

"Let them go, Leuenaar," Kayla demanded. "It's between you and me, they're innocent."

Leuenaar scoffed, then laughed loudly. "Innocent? What makes you think I care? I'm a Sith Lord." And with that, he loosed a massive Force Push that sent Villanov and herself crashing through the wall and out into the Borleian night, landing on the beachfront the military base was situated at. Villanov aimed his blaster carbine and fired off dozens of rounds in quick succession before Leuenaar ripped the gun from his hands and froze him in place in a Force Stasis. Still holding the twenty-odd officers up by their throats, he began breaking their necks one by one as Kayla stood watching in horror. She activated both her lightsabers, the blue and purple blades giving off a pleasant hue that belied the pure anger her face was showing.

"Enough!" she yelled, throwing both lightsabers straight at Leuenaar. The lightsabers seemed to pass straight through him, then he disappeared entirely. Just as Kayla was trying to get a sense of his location through the Force, he reappeared right in front of her and kicked her hard in the chest, sending her tumbling backwards reeling in pain. As she recomposed, Leuenaar lit his own saber, casting a harsh red glow over his grinning face as he snapped the final ten officers' necks at once and let them fall lifelessly to the sand.

"You're a beast, Leuenaar. Nothing more than a horrible, blue murderer."

"Your words sting, little Jedi," he mocked. "Luckily I don't care much for them. I prefer _action_."

As he emphasised the word, he sprinted forwards straight at her, enhancing his speed with the Force, and pushed at the small girl's shoulders, flattening and winding her. Kayla leapt to her feet, kicking him in the stomach in the process and causing him to stumble several feet backwards. He swiped at the sand using the Force, causing a huge dust cloud to blind her momentarily. Kayla wasn't stupid though, and immediately sensed his approach from her left, putting both her sabers up to block the incoming slash. As Leuenaar pressed down and overpowered her, Kayla kicked his feet out from under him, causing him to fall flat on his back. She slashed her sabers across his torso from both directions, her arms crossing from opposite ends, but striking nothing. Leuenaar had again disappeared from view, reappearing behind her and grabbing her in a sleeper hold around her neck. He tensed his ample arms, and Kayla's consciousness began fading as she struggled to free herself.

"It's been fun, Master Talus. But I have work to do here," Leuenaar said sarcastically as he gave the hold everything he had.

Kayla closed her eyes and tried her best to focus on the Force. She slammed her hands backwards and grabbed two fistfuls of his kidneys, then electrified them, sending powerful jolts through his internal organs. Leuenaar instantly let her go, screaming in pain as he crumpled to the ground. Kayla then took a run-up and kicked his head as hard as she could, sending him rolling a few feet away. She leaped into the air, trying to body slam him, but he moved out of the way as she jumped, and Kayla landed painfully on her right elbow instead. She cursed to herself, clutching the elbow, knowing that she could now no longer use that arm at all to fight him with. Leuenaar laughed and grabbed the arm, twisting it behind her back painfully. He picked Kayla's fallen lightsabers up from the sand with the Force and dangled them in front of her face mockingly.

"You won't need these anymore, Jedi," he teased, then placed them on his belt. "They're nice though, I think I'll keep them for my next apprentice. It seems you have some use after all." He took her throat in his free left hand and stroked it gently, making her shudder in disgust. "I could kill you any time I want, now." He gestured towards Commander Villanov, still frozen in Force Stasis. "The good Commander over there can only watch helplessly though." He thought to himself, then. "Perhaps I should give him something interesting to look at. What do you think, Kayla?"

Before she could respond, Leuenaar placed a hand over her mouth. She squirmed, knowing exactly what he had planned for her. Kayla's mind raced with possible outcomes, all of them terrifying. She was too terrified to even focus on using the Force to free herself, and Leuenaar knew it. There was effectively nothing that she could do now. Leuenaar would humiliate her in front of Commander Villanov, then he would take control of Borleias' ion cannons and decimate the Republic fleets.

* * *

"Something's wrong," Xander said to Ferros on the bridge of the _Solar Wind_. "Those ion cannons haven't fired for a while."

"I think Master Talus is in trouble," Ferros said, a hint of fear creeping into her little voice. "I can sense her on the planet."

Admiral Minvessen clicked on the fleet comms. "Red and Gold Squadrons, something's wrong with ion cannon control planet-side. You'll have to take out those shields yourselves. Concentrate on 'AN-1' for now, Red Squadron. Golds, you take 'AN-2'. Remember what General Arriah said about the shield generators." A series of double-clicks on the comms confirmed that both squadrons had acknowledged the order. "Green, Blue, Yellow and Grey Squadrons, you need to cover Red and Gold while they go in for runs on the shield generators. Green and Blue, cover Red Squad. Yellow and Grey, you cover Gold Squad."

Ferros suddenly dropped her lightsaber and fell to her knees in tears.

"Ferros!" Gavin yelled as he rushed over to his big sister. "What's wrong?"

"Can't you feel it?" she looked up at him. "Concentrate."

Xander clenched his fists angrily. "Someone's hurting Master Talus. We should go and help her."

"No way," Jake ordered. "I gave her my word that I'd protect you lot. I'm not going to just let you fly down to the planet in the middle of a pitched battle."

"But she needs our help! She's in pain!" Ferros screamed.

"If Master Talus is in trouble, there's no way we could do anything about it," Gavin put his hand on Ferros' shoulder. "I wanna help too, but we're just younglings. We haven't even been assigned to a master yet. Master Talus is a Jedi Master. We have to have some faith in her."

Ferros took her brother's hand and squeezed it tightly. "I hope you're right, Gavin."

Jake then put his hand on the girl's other shoulder and smiled down at her. "I wouldn't worry about Master Talus. That girl is nigh-on indestructible. She may look young and small, but she's a firecracker. No way will she go down without a fight."

Ferros and Gavin looked up at him, and Xander nodded confidently in approval. "I feel sorry for the Sith Lord," Xander grinned. "He's made her mad, now."

* * *

"_Fire at will, Red Squad," _Runice ordered her pilots. Ashlyn had also felt the disturbance in the Force that told her that her master was in trouble, but she couldn't let it concern her. _I have a job to do,_ she asserted to herself, just as another pair of Chiss interceptors began trailing Liina's X-Wing. She lined the first one up, destroying it in a single blast of her quad lasers, causing the other to break to starboard.

"Take it out, Grey Three," she ordered her wingmate as she scanned for more targets. A moment later, the second Chiss interceptor was history, and Ashlyn had a whole squadron of fighters on her tail. "Grey Squad, coming in on our aft," she warned them. "Whole new squadron, designated Epsilon. Come around, split in flights to port and starboard."

As ordered, the four flights of Grey Squadron split, two breaking to port and two breaking to starboard. Predictably, most of the incoming Chiss fighters stuck to Ashlyn's tail.

"_They gunning straight for you, Grey Leader, eight marks,"_ Grey Ten told her. _"My flight will cover you. Take evasive!"_

Ashlyn jinked about, trying her best to lose the eight incoming Chiss craft. Two explosions from behind informed her that her wingmates were gone.

"_We lost Grey Two and Three," _Grey Seven announced. _"Took out five Chiss."_

Ashlyn became enraged then. "Nobody takes out my wingmates," she scorned, then came about in a manoeuver that no Chiss craft could ever have performed without knocking the pilot unconscious or destroying the ship. Now tailing the three remaining Chiss, she dumbfired a proton torpedo into the centre of the Chiss formation and aimed her quad lasers just slightly port of the second Chiss fighter, causing them both to try and evade away and crash into each other all in the space of a second. Ashlyn grabbed the torpedo using the Force and nudge it to her right, sending it careering into the port side of the last remaining Chiss fighter. "We're clear, Grey Squad," she said emotionlessly. "Form up on Gold Squad and help out with the shield generators with whatever torps you have left."

"_Nice shooting, Grey Leader. That was really something," _Yellow Four told her.

"_Animal and Ferry would have been proud of that,"_ Grey Five added, referring to Greys Two and Three.

"Let's not disappoint them then," Ashlyn said. "Their sacrifices won't be in vain. Let's take out those shields."

* * *

Leuenaar twisted Kayla's right arm, breaking it instantly. Kayla refused to show any pain and just stood still, her face dripping with sweat, not even uttering a grunt. He let go of her arm then, and it dangled limply by her side.

"You're a lot tougher than you look, I'll grant you that," Leuenaar admitted. "But I'm sorry to say, I'm rather good at breaking tough people."

Kayla said nothing.

"It's too bad you don't have your Jedi friends with you this time," Leuenaar teased, running the tip of his index finger lightly down Kayla's face. "I actually had some trouble fighting you all off as a group. You might even have defeated me. But on your own?" He began unzipping her very loose-fitting flight suit, overly large because no one in the history of the Republic Navy as far as anyone was aware was quite as small as Kayla, at barely over five feet tall. As the zip passed over Kayla's chest, the flight suit fell to the sandy beach floor and gathered in a pile at her ankles, revealing her very tight-fitting synthleather pants and top.

"It's a shame you won't join the Sith," Leuenaar said, standing behind her and running his fingertips across her flat belly and up to her breasts, squeezing them roughly. "I could make you very powerful."

"Like you did with Runice?" she shuddered as he squeezed again and again. "I don't think so. Do what you want, it won't change anything. Your Chiss fleet is about to be destroyed. Your victory over me will mean nothing."

"There are other ways I can turn you to the dark side," Leuenaar whispered into her left ear, then licked her earlobe. Kayla thought she was going to be sick, and began convulsing. Leuenaar just laughed and continued touching her, kissing her neck and squeezing her breasts. Kayla just stood still, her left arm pinned behind her and her right useless. The pain was almost overwhelming, and she could feel the splintered bones touching flesh and nerves that they should never normally be near. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to summon the courage to fight back, but Leuenaar saw it coming and shoved her hard into the sand face-first, then leapt on her and flipped her onto her back.

"I'm going to enjoy this. The utter defeat and humiliation of a Jedi. You are the Order's strongest Master, are you not?" Kayla still said nothing, she just turned her head to the side and looked away. Leuenaar grinned in satisfaction. "What a wonderful coincidence that you are also young, female and beautiful. I will savour your humiliation, Jedi."

Kayla let her tears flow freely down her face, even though she tried desperately not to allow Leuenaar even the slightest bit of satisfaction. Her mascara ran black streaks down her cheeks, which Leuenaar wiped clean with his thumb.

"You know, _Kayla_," he mocked. "You shouldn't feel bad. If your two girlfriends were here with you, they'd receive the same treatment. So you can be proud that you lost on your own."

Kayla's resignation and humiliation turned to seething rage at the thought of Liina or Ashlyn being raped, and she spat in Leuenaar's face. He wiped the saliva off, then leant forward, putting all his weight on her broken right arm. Kayla again refused to allow him any satisfaction in her pain, and simply contorted her face a little, sweat beading and then flowing from her reddening forehead until he sat back again.

"Enough of this," Leuenaar said with frustration, attempting to undo Kayla's pants. Unable to focus enough to use the Force due to both Leuenaar's dark presence and the massive pain she was in, she swatted his hands away before he could undo her pants. Leuenaar grunted angrily, showing obvious disdain for her attempted fight-back, knowing full-well that there was nothing she could really do to stop him. But Kayla sensed her opportunity, remembering her fight with Darth Rengar on Tython when they were still searching for the second Jedi holocron. Rolling back onto her shoulders and tucking her knees into her chest, she then threw her legs out to either side of Leuenaar's head. He was clearly not expecting it, and so he didn't know quite what to do. Grabbing the back of his head with her one good arm, she shoved his face as hard up against her crotch as she could and locked her ankles.

"You want to know what happened to the last Sith who tried to rape me?" she said angrily as she snapped her thighs together, slamming painfully against the sides of Leuenaar's neck. He grunted in pain, grasping at her legs and trying to force them apart. "I broke his ribs," she said as she loosed a mighty burst of strength, her tight synthleather pants squeaking as she squeezed. Leuenaar stifled a pained scream and raised himself to his feet with Kayla dangling from his neck. He grabbed at her thighs again and tried to pry them apart, but she kept squeezing just tightly enough not to fall. Commander Villanov came out of his stasis then; Leuenaar was unable to keep the focus he needed to contain him.

"Crush that son-of-a-hutt!" he yelled, urging her on. "Squeeze his fat blue head off!"

Kayla grinned at him while still dangling upside down from Leuenaar's neck, then squeezed as tightly as she could, using every muscle in her lower body. Her black synthleather pants kept squeaking loudly as she tightened her grip to unbearable levels, and eventually Leuenaar's hold on his own consciousness faded completely and he dropped to the sand totally limp. Kayla stood up clutching her very broken right arm, then summoned her lightsabers to her good hand. Commander Villanov quickly made his way over and aimed his blaster carbine at the unconscious Sith's face.

"No!" Kayla stopped him, pushing the barrel away. "I want him to suffer. He can't do that until he's awake."

Seconds later, Leuenaar woke up in a daze, unsure of his surroundings. Kayla put her right boot on his neck.

"What the-" he said as he put his hands to her ankle, trying desperately to dislodge it as Kayla applied more pressure. She calmly raised her purple lightsaber and pointed the hilt downwards and activated it, the blade stopping short only millimetres from plunging through his right eye. The heat of the blade boiled his eyeball and Leuenaar screamed.

"Shut up," Kayla demanded as she stomped on his throat.

"I'll kill you, girl. You understand me! I'LL KILL YOU!" Leuenaar shouted, seething with rage.

Kayla swiped the purple blade deftly from left to right, severing his right arm at the shoulder, producing another blood-curdling scream.

"I told you to SHUT UP!" she yelled. "Next time you speak, I cut you open."

"You're too weak, pathetic little girl. Just try it-"

Leuenaar was cut short by his own inhuman screaming as Kayla sliced shallowly across his belly, his intestines beginning to spill out before the wound cauterised and sealed everything in place. Leuenaar made sickening gurgling noises as Kayla continued to press down on his throat with her boot, forcibly closing his trachea and preventing him from breathing.

"Before I kill you, I want you to understand something," she said calmly. "We're not the Jedi you've been told of. We won't sit back meditating while you wreak your destruction and pain all over the Republic." She took her foot off his throat then and amputated his right leg at the hip. Leuenaar cried out in agony and began to beg.

"Please…no more, I can't take it any longer. You've won this fight," he pleaded.

"And so the Sith Lord begs for the mercy he failed to show anyone in his whole life," Commander Villanov sniggered. "You've earned your suffering, Sith. You're lucky it's Master Talus standing there with the lightsaber and not me. I'd amputate all your limbs and leave you to be eaten slowly by the imooda for what you did to her and my men."

"I can trade information for my life. Just please, stop mutilating me."

"Maybe I'll just wrap my legs around your neck and squeeze you unconscious again then?" Kayla taunted angrily.

"No, no more! I don't know which is more humiliating. Please, you'll want to hear what I have to say."

"You're in no position to bargain, sleemo," Villanov growled, raising his gun and aiming it at Leuenaar's remaining leg.

"No, please! I'll tell you first, then you'll know I'm not lying!"

Kayla and Villanov looked at each other, then turned back to Leuenaar.

"The Sith, they're on Dromund Kaas. It's in the outer rim. There's a whole Dark Council, I was a member of it."

Kayla smiled. "How generous of you. But you still killed all the officers here and all the soldiers at Bilbringi. These were good men. Men with families, and honour." She deactivated her purple lightsaber and placed it back on her belt. "You badly injured my friends, you broke my arm and tried to rape me. You don't get to bargain. You're a liar, a sadist and a murderer. Your words are as cheap as your penitence." She turned to faced Villanov again. "Kill him."

Leuenaar put his remaining hand up in protest as Villanov put a laser bolt through his brain. Villanov spat on the dead Sith's corpse as he and Kayla turned and walked back to the military base.

"You know, even while I was held in stasis," he said to Kayla, "I could still see and hear everything that was happening. You're one hell of a good fighter, especially for someone so small."

Kayla smiled at him, but not with her usual sweetness. "Thanks, Commander. In all seriousness though, I think I need a long shower, followed by a stint in the kolto tanks."

* * *

A full day after the two fleets had returned to Coruscant, the War Council decided to convene at the Jedi Temple, in honour of the heroics that the Jedi had recently exhibited. Commanders Villanov and Kryss were both in attendance to report on their missions, as were the six Jedi Knights and Masters along with Padawan Byz Akkon and the usual compliment of Military leaders and Senators that made up the War Council. Kayla's arm was heavily bandaged; she was fresh from the kolto tank and recovering quickly. All seven Jedi were for the first time dressed in Jedi robes as was traditional, but mostly black and with their hoods lowered.

"We have had a decisive victory against the Chiss," Chancellor Grennar began his speech. "The fleet they sent to the Pyria system is utterly destroyed, and Ansion is once again back in Republic hands and slowly but surely on its way back to being the proud planet it once was. Master Rokanh, if you'd like to report."

Devin stood up and cleared his throat. "The Sith sent another Dark Lord to govern over Ansion. He was defeated, and the soldiers under the command of Commander Brellin Kryss performed admirably in taking out the Ansionian communications, the orbiting Chiss cruiser, and the slave drivers holding much of the population captive. Not a single life was lost on Ansion, not even amongst the slaves. Our victory was total, and I believe that Commander Kryss and his squad have earned a promotion."

Chancellor Grennar smiled at Commander Kryss, who looked down at his feet in embarrassment. "Admiral Minvessen? This is your call."

Jake stood and walked over to Commander Kryss and extended his hand. Kryss took it, shaking it with pride. "Thankyou for your exemplary service, _Colonel_ Kryss. It's my wish that everyone else in the Republic Armed Forces shows even half as much skill, courage and devotion as you have."

The entire War Council, even Senator Jarvis, applauded loudly and vigorously.

"And now, Admiral, if you'd like to report on the Battle of Pyria?" the Chancellor asked.

Jake returned to his place and remained standing. "The battle went almost exactly as we'd planned, Chancellor," he began. "The Chiss had no idea we were coming, thanks to the efforts of the Jedi – General Tanski in particular – and the Mandalorians. Their forces were routed the moment we microjumped into the battlefield. Our losses were minimal; several of our brave young pilots were killed, but this was vastly outweighed by the number of casualties the Chiss suffered. Every single Chiss craft and cruiser was destroyed. The fallen will be remembered in a memorial service in two days' time outside the Military Headquarters here on Coruscant. Only one thing failed to go according to our plan, which Commander Villanov will now explain."

Villanov stood nervously looking around the room at all the various important people in his presence. "Sorry everyone, I'm not great with words," he apologised. "Part of our plan was to have the existing Ion Cannons on the surface of Borleias be utilised to lower the shields on the Chiss cruisers, so our ships would have an easier time destroying them. Unfortunately, during the battle an Assault Shuttle tried to land on the planet, but was destroyed during its plunge into the Borleian atmosphere as it was being pursued by General Talus. An escape pod launched from it, which landed nearby the military base. The being that was inside the pod was a Sith Lord named Darth Leuenaar, a self-professed member of the Sith Dark Council. He attempted to seize control of the ion cannons and use them to disable the shields on our own cruisers, killing dozens of Republic officers in the process."

He looked over at the injured Kayla, who gave him one of her sweet, girly smiles, encouraging him to continue. "It is my belief that the actions of a single Jedi Knight were the reason we all survived in the Pyria System. Had Darth Leuenaar assumed control over the ion cannons, who knows how differently the battle may have turned out. The brave Jedi Knight who stopped him was General Kayla Talus. Without her, we may have been fighting an altogether different war than we now are."

Runice stood and stared in disbelief. "Darth Leuenaar was a high-ranking member of the Dark Council. He was extremely powerful; someone even the Sith themselves feared."

"He was fearsome indeed, General Arriah," Villanov agreed. "He came very close to succeeding in his mission, too. I will spare you all the details of the encounter, as they may be quite disturbing for some of you to hear, particularly the female members of this council. Darth Leuenaar was the worst kind of scum…worse than any I have had the displeasure to be in the presence of. But Master Talus defeated him, and for the simple fact that without his defeat we may all be in very serious trouble, I recommend that she receive the highest honour that the Republic can bestow."

Kayla stood and shook her head vehemently. "Thanks Commander, but an award is not necessary. I am a Jedi; the honour comes in serving the Republic and its people. The only thing I would have you all do is remember the fallen heroes that gave their lives to help us keep our freedom. I fought for _them_, not for medals. There is something you should all know though, and I think now is the perfect time for it." She shuffled her feet, getting comfortable. "I haven't even told the Jedi this information yet, so I'm sorry if this comes as a shock to some of you. Before I killed him, Darth Leuenaar gave Commander Villanov and I some information that could be vital to our war effort, if he was telling the truth. He told us that the Sith have a whole planet in the Outer Rim called Dromund Kaas. Apparently the Dark Council is located there. Master Arriah has also learned enough of the Sith's recent history to tell us that this place has been inhabited by them for around ten years."

"What does that mean exactly, General?" Senator Jarvis asked impatiently. "You're dodging the point, spit it out already."

Chancellor Grennar stood up and pointed at the Senator angrily. "Senator Jarvis, do not test my patience today-"

"It's okay, Chancellor," Kayla interrupted. "It means, Senator, that the Sith may number in the hundreds, even thousands. The Sith we have fought up until now aren't even a fraction of the number that they probably have on that planet, waiting for their opportunity to take down the Jedi and the Republic."

"How absurd," Jarvis spat. "I've never even heard of this 'Dromund Kaas'. Sounds like some sort of fairy tale to scare small children like yourself."

Villanov stood angrily, his chair falling over behind him. "You have no right to speak to her like that, you scum! If it weren't for her, you'd be hiding in your personal yacht right now, racing off-world as fast as your cowardly mouth could order your servants to carry you. Take it back!"

"I take back nothing, Commander," Jarvis said smugly. "This Jedi claims to have killed one of these 'Sith Lords', and yet she comes before us with nothing more than the word of a clearly quite useless officer and injuries consistent with a fall down a staircase."

"How dare you!" Villanov shouted. "This poor girl suffered the worst kind of humiliation while defending people like you, and you have the gall to-"

Kayla prodded him with the Force, shaking her head when he turned to face her, warning him not to go into details about her encounter with Leuenaar.

"No need to threaten me with your pitiful words, Commander. My presence on this council isn't even worth the time it took to come to this pathetic church," he said as he stood and turned to leave. "Don't bother removing me, I'll do it myself. I'll see you all in the Senate, where I'll be removing Ord Mantell from the Republic."

As soon as he left, Villanov slammed his fist onto the synthwood table and cursed loudly. "The nerve of that man!"

"It's alright, Commander," Kayla assured him. "He's as useless as his arguments are false. Anyway…"

"Yes, please continue, Master Talus," the Chancellor beckoned.

"As I was saying, my theory is that the Sith have had ten years to bolster their forces, on a planet that is almost completely unknown by the greater galaxy. The Sith are the ones that are in control of the war, not us, and definitely not the Chiss."

"What do you suggest then, General?" Senator Golan asked.

Kayla gave the War Council a stern look. "The Sith will not hide on Dromund Kaas forever. Sooner or later, they will strike at the Republic in force. We need to find out where this planet is, and in time we need to scout it out. For now, I suggest that we spend as much time as we can celebrating our victory and bolstering our military forces. This war is far from over, and we need to be prepared for the arrival of the Lords of the Sith."

* * *

After most of the War Council members had left, only Jake Minvessen, Stepfyn Villanov, Brellin Kryss, Ashlyn Valos, Devin Rokanh, Liina Hriyek, Lenny Tanski, Runice Arriah and Kayla Talus remained. They all strolled towards Devin's old watering hole, the _Coruscanti Arms_, where Devin's old friend and barkeeper Ternaugh greeted them.

"Devin! I never thought I'd see you again, buddy! I understand you've become some sort of hotshot military guy?"

"He's far more than some military guy," Brellin laughed. "He's a Jedi Master."

"A Jedi?" Ternaugh asked. "Ain't they the ones with the laser swords? Sorcerers or something?"

"Something like that," Ashlyn laughed with Liina and Runice. Ternaugh then noticed that many of them wore lightsabers on their belts.

"Whoa, you're all Jedi? And you're all with Dev?" Ternaugh guffawed loudly. "Well I'm just glad to see my old pal is doing so well, and with so many new friends, no less! If you're friends of Dev's, you're friends of mine. Drinks are on the house for you guys tonight." He approached Devin and whispered in his ear. "I saw what you guys did on the Holonet. I'm proud o' you, buddy. You've come a long way since you arrived here from Corellia with me and Creo all those years ago."

"Thanks, Ternaugh," Devin smiled, slapping his friend on the shoulder. "It's real good to see you again."

Ternaugh chuckled to himself again as he returned to the bar. "My friend, the Jedi Knight, saviour of the Republic. Ha! Who would've thought?"

Devin brought a round of double-standard Corellian ales to the table and handed them out as a skinny Bith and his Rodian accomplice approached him.

"Hey! Rokanh!" yelled the Bith.

Devin turned and regarded them, then sat down next to Kayla and Runice and ignored them.

"Hey, my buddy's speakin' to you, Rokanh. Don't be rude in front of all your friends here," the Rodian snapped. "You know what happened last time you ignored us."

"Who the hell are these guys?" Ashlyn crumpled her pretty Togruta face in disbelief.

"Hey no one asked you, tail-head," the Bith retorted.

Devin looked across at Ashlyn and Liina, who both started laughing. "These are two morons I used to work with before I became a Jedi," he told them.

"You better watch what you say," the Rodian told him. "Or we may have to take you out the front."

"I'll take care of this," Runice grinned. She looked the two thugs up and down and chuckled a little, then extended a finger, pointing at their respective crotches. The two thugs then doubled over, moaning and shuddering uncontrollably. When they stood up again, they looked down at themselves in horror.

"Who the hell are you people? How did you do that?" the Bith asked, his already huge Bith eyes seemed to be bulging in disbelief. Their two lady-friends then came up to them, saw what kind of state they were in and threw their drinks all over them before cursing and leaving.

"C'mon man, I don't wanna know. Let's just get out of here," the Rodian said, tugging at his friend's shirt sleeve and running off after them.

"That's some trick, Runice," Stepfyn laughed. "I hope you don't ever use that on me."

Runice and Liina shared a giggle and smiled conspiratorially. "Oh yes you do," Liina said.

"I thought you weren't gonna do that anymore?" Devin said.

"Only when it's appropriate," she winked at him.

"So anyway," Jake started to ask, "how long do you think we've got before the Sith and the Chiss start fighting us back again?"

Devin thought about it for a moment, gulping down a big mouthful of cold ale. "Provided we bolster our defences properly in the right places and don't get too complacent, I'd say we have around a year, tops. It'll take the Chiss a little while to recover from the Battle of Pyria. They lost pretty badly."

"I'm not worried," Ashlyn said. "We'll just send Kayla."

They all laughed except for Lenny, who looked a little nervous.

"What's wrong?" Liina asked him half-heartedly. "You don't have anything to worry about unless you piss Kayla off. Then you're dead," she assured him, making the whole group laugh again.

"Stop it guys, you know I'm not like that," Kayla slapped Liina's arm playfully. "_Anyway_ …what's wrong, Lenny?"

"Don't you feel it?" he asked the Jedi members of the group.

"Feel what?" Liina asked.

"Just…darkness."

Ashlyn took his hand and gave it a little squeeze. "We all feel it, Lenny. But tonight we're celebrating. There'll be plenty of time to worry about that stuff later."

Lenny allowed himself a smile. "You're right," he said, gulping down several mouthfuls of ale. "Tonight we celebrate."

* * *

As everyone went their separate ways at the end of the night, Kayla and Devin held hands and strolled slowly along the deserted back streets of Coruscant's undercity on their way back to Kayla's apartment. A gust of wind came from nowhere, blowing various bits of debris at them. A tingle on the back of Kayla's neck warned her of impending danger. Scanning the area with the Force in her inebriated state, she stuck her hand out and caught a flying bottle inches from hitting her in the head.

"Not bad, Jedi. You've still got it," came a gravelly voice from behind a dustbin. "Even if you're both completely hammered."

"Master Katarn," Devin smiled, remembering that this was the very same alleyway he'd first met the Force Ghost of the old Jedi Master.

"I was about to say 'in the flesh', but I guess I can't really do that, can I?" Katarn said as he stood up, throwing back a hood to reveal his bearded face.

"What brings you here?" Devin asked.

"Hang on a sec, we don't have the holocrons with us…what's going on?" Kayla asked.

"I'm a Force Ghost, Kayla. The real Kyle Katarn, not the one I put in that stupid holocron." He studied them both, looking them up and down. "You've both grown so much. I'm proud of you."

"Even though we didn't do things the same way as the old Jedi did?" Kayla asked. "I reckon most of the Jedi from your time would say that we've fallen to the dark side, or some crap like that."

Kyle scoffed. "I spent most of my life trying to warn the Jedi about the dangers of the light side. They were all so worried about falling to the dark side that they forgot about fighting it. No, I'm here to tell you one last thing before I disappear for good. I can't ever appear to you again after this. Don't ask why, I can't tell you. Mysterious Jedi business, you know the drill."

Kayla squeezed Devin's hand tightly and smiled at him, remembering how much she enjoyed Kyle's limited patience for formalities and long-winded explanations.

"I just wanted to tell you that you're both doing a great job, and we're all very proud of you. You're doing what almost every Jedi in history didn't have the guts to do, and it'll pay off in a big way." Kyle disappeared then, but kept speaking briefly. "As I told you just before, I can't appear to you again. But there's another Jedi who can. When the time is right, you'll meet this Jedi. Keep doing us proud, young Masters, and may the Force be with you."


End file.
